Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Julianne is new to Methven, a ski town with a decidedly provincial vibe about an hour from Christchurch | Subscribe: youtube.com/RNZVideo?subscribe
She has not lived there for long but has noticed a topic on almost everyone's lips.
"I'm just trying to buy a house and a lot of the houses are going for an extremely higher price because they're going into Airbnbs rather than for the people that live here," she says.
Housing affordability is an issue many will grumble about quietly but few are willing to put their names or faces to the complaints.
Crossroads run through the heart of Methven, an apt metaphor for the problem striking at the heart of the community. Average property values rose by almost 70 percent from 2018 to 2024, climbing from $380,000 to $640,000.
The latest census figures show more than 13 percent of the town's homes are unoccupied.
Read more: rnz.co.nz/news/community/1060979/airbnb-crisis-or-economic-boom-methven-grapples-with-housing-tensions
Julianne is new to Methven, a ski town with a decidedly provincial vibe about an hour from Christchurch | Subscribe: youtube.com/RNZVideo?subscribe
She has not lived there for long but has noticed a topic on almost everyone's lips.
"I'm just trying to buy a house and a lot of the houses are going for an extremely higher price because they're going into Airbnbs rather than for the people that live here," she says.
Housing affordability is an issue many will grumble about quietly but few are willing to put their names or faces to the complaints.
Crossroads run through the heart of Methven, an apt metaphor for the problem striking at the heart of the community. Average property values rose by almost 70 percent from 2018 to 2024, climbing from $380,000 to $640,000.
The latest census figures show more than 13 percent of the town's homes are unoccupied.
Read more: rnz.co.nz/news/community/1060979/airbnb-crisis-or-economic-boom-methven-grapples-with-housing-tensions
