A Twizel salmon farm is tackling the district’s housing shortage head-on by securing rental accommodation for its growing workforce.
By Claire Taylor for Local Democracy Reporting
Twizel's High Country Salmon, established by Margaret and Richard Logan in 2000, has grown from a small fish farm into a major tourism operation with a restaurant, gift shop and tours.
The company now employs more than 60 staff across its operations, serving between 1000 and 4000 visitors a day.
“We represent a huge number of different countries and cultures and some of those are long term visa holders and residents, and some of them are ... on their working holiday,” the company’s managing director Jeni Logan said.
Logan said they also provided housing for its workers, currently managing seven rental properties and were on the hunt for more.
'If we haven't got houses... they can't come'
She said Twizel, as a growing town, did not have a large pool of workers to meet the business’s needs so they relied on bringing people into the district and housing them.
“If we haven’t got the houses … they can’t come,” she said.
“Our business is really limited if we don’t have houses so we’ve been managing our own houses directly with landlords for a number of years,” she said.
The Mackenzie District Council has been focused on resolving the lack of worker accommodation in the district this year, with the council reporting struggles to recruit staff in March due to the lack of housing.
In May, councillors agreed to the sale of a Tekapo lot with strict legal guidelines that it be developed for worker accommodation.
Logan said Twizel had plenty of houses, but not enough were being rented out.
More property owners were recognising the benefits of renting to a single company rather than relying on short-term rentals, she said.
“They get their rent paid on time, in full every week … we do the quarterly inspections, we do any maintenance that needs to be done, liaise with any contractors.”
“It makes it really easy for the landlord,” she said.
Logan said she had also received feedback that landlords valued the financial security of longer-term rentals.
“Banks don’t recognise the income from Airbnb as being steady income … banks prefer just that signed contract lease if you’re using that house as security or that income as security,” she said.
'Need to be affordable for us and our staff'
Some Twizel property owners who rented homes to High Country Salmon had since offered the company other rental properties, she said, with all tenancy agreements to date renewed.
Logan said the biggest challenge was securing rental properties.
“We need to get them at a reasonable price so they’re affordable for us and affordable for our staff so we really need to sell the benefits of renting to us.”
“[For] people that are out of town, it’s great because we do all the quarterly inspections and send them the report … they don’t have to worry.”
While the salmon farm operated year-round, staff numbers dropped during winter. However, the company continued paying for the rooms and maintaining the rentals until they were needed again, she said.
“We take the hit if the rooms aren’t full and we know that’s an investment that we make over winter … because we know we’re going to need those rooms in summer.”
She said the arrangement was also a major benefit for staff, many of whom were tourists or travellers who shared similar experiences.
“They’re flatting with their workmates … it’s a really good way to instantly meet people, learn about what’s going on in the town, have people to share with on your days off,” she said.
She said it was common now for Twizel businesses to rent properties directly from landlords to house their workers.
“I think any business in Twizel that is dependent on staff has to be looking down these routes … It can be a problem solved by the community because the houses are there.”
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
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