Gold Rush: Who's Cashing In on Queenstown? An RNZ series examining the money flowing into Queenstown - and who's missing out.
A former World Bank senior economist says people buying holiday homes and leaving them empty in Queenstown for much of the year are on track to "hollow out" the town, unless authorities take strong action to build more affordable housing for workers.
Data suggests, at any given time, more than a quarter of the district's properties are unoccupied.
On Census night 2023, there were 3480 empty dwellings and 3402 listed as 'residents away', compared with 18,219 properties occupied or under construction.
At the same time, the cost of renting or buying a house has risen sharply, and more than 1600 households have joined a waitlist for an affordable housing scheme.
Ralph Hanan, who has lived in Queenstown for nearly two decades and spent 29 years at the World Bank, said the number of empty houses would likely increase in coming years.
He told RNZ councils and the government could not compel people to rent their properties out.
"If these 'ghost houses' were available, of course, that means that the money that went into new developments for new housing could be spent somewhere else for a more productive en
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