{"id":590111,"date":"2026-09-04T16:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590111\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:14:14","slug":"more-than-650-properties-under-investigation-in-mackenzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590111\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 650 properties under investigation in Mackenzie"},"content":{"rendered":"

A probe into potential breaches of short-term visitor accommodation rules has the Mackenzie District Council investigating 655 properties.<\/p>\n

By Claire Taylor of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n

The council launched a compliance programme to tackle the issue, and confirmed it had appointed an officer to investigate short-term accommodation listings in the district in July.<\/p>\n

Following the launch of the campaign, the council asked residents to dob-in any non-compliant accommodation providers and early last month it already had a list of 200 under investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, that had quickly ballooned and the council has confirmed it now has 655 properties under investigation.<\/p>\n

A council spokesperson said every known short-term accommodation provider in the district would be assessed.<\/p>\n

They said the compliance officer would assess each property against the District Plan, Resource Management Act 1991, the Building Act 2004, and related legislation, before making any determination.<\/p>\n

Information would also be sought about the operations of the accommodation and checked alongside council\u2019s resource consents, building consents, and rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation is sought on guest numbers, the number of units on a property, configuration and physical characteristics of units which are used for short-term visitor accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mackenzie<\/p>\n

Mackenzie mayor Scott Aronsen. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

If any non-compliance was identified, property owners and management companies would be required to cease any unauthorised activity and apply for the necessary consents, they said.<\/p>\n

The district rules allow one residential unit per site to accommodate no more than six guests per night, while multi-unit operations and larger operations required resource consent.<\/p>\n

Targeted rates include a tourism and promotion rate<\/p>\n

Accommodation providers were also subject to targeted rates, including a tourism and promotion rate.<\/p>\n

Monitoring and additional checks would also be carried out to determine compliance and ensure the correct rates were applied to each property, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSite monitoring is undertaken to ensure compliance, and enforcement is carried out if contraventions are found to be continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The compliance programme was introduced by the council in July, after a number of short-term accommodation providers were found to be operating outside the intended planning rules and building use classifications.<\/p>\n

At the time of introducing the compliance programme, the council\u2019s corporate planner Julie Shanks said of the 200 short-term accommodation providers that were under investigation, 64 had been found to be non-compliant.<\/p>\n

Accommodation issues have been identified as a priority by the council, as concerns over limited housing and rapid short-term accommodation developments continue to grow among the community.<\/p>\n

In April, mayor Scott Aronsen warned a firmer approach to short-term accommodation was coming, and in May the council voted to sell a council-owned lot in Tekapo to make way for worker accommodation.<\/p>\n

The following month, at a council workshop, consultant Philip Jones questioned why short-term accommodation was not classed as a commercial activity in the district.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A probe into potential breaches of short-term visitor accommodation rules has the Mackenzie District Council investigating 655 properties.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,814,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-590111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-property","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}