Long Term Plans, reserve management plans, Local Water Done Well… is your computer threatening to malfunction from trying to download all of these documents?

Thousands of pages of information about Central Otago’s future - whether it be vital infrastructure upgrades or how we use our land and reserves, parks and swimming pools, have all been up for public consultation.

But who had time to read all of those documents and make a submission? Spare a thought for the Central Otago District Council staff who have to put them together.

How Central Otago rated as a district compared to other councils of similar size, was currently part of a new project by Cabinet, laying the foundation for new performance measurement framework.

In August 2024, the Government announced measures to refocus councils in response to cost of living concerns. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon articulated that as a concern about rising rates, a desire that council spending concentrated on core services and infrastructure, and that the efficiency of decision-making was improved. 

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) would soon publish a set of council profiles on its website, including key performance metrics for each one, relating to financial performance (yes another few hundred pages to download). It would be available publicly on June 30.

The initial set of metrics was based on already-public data from sources including annual reports and long-term plans.

Central Otago’s rates were looking likely to increase by 12.5% in the 2025-26 year, but Queenstown Lakes was at 15.8% and Clutha around 16%. Meanwhile in Southland, Gore was consulting on 10.5% and Invercargill 7.7%.

Alexandra was recently rated in the top 12 places in the country to retire. But for those trying to get into the market, an entry level house was around $550,000 - $600,000.

It would be cheaper to move to Invercargill and buy a home for under $500,000. And the rates were amongst the lowest in the country. But house prices were on the up in the deep south. Investors have been catching on.

Raine and Horne Southland and Central Otago real estate agent Sheree Williams said growth was strong in the south but you could still buy a decent first home for between $400,000 and $450,000 in Invercargill, depending on where in the city it was.

Central Otago Mayor Tamah Alley pointed out that in 2014 the average house price in Central Otago was $280,000 and in 2025 that had now jumped up to $760,000. Read here

When asked if Central Otago was an affordable place to live, Mayor Alley said it wasn’t cheap to live anywhere in New Zealand anymore, “and that was some of the realities of everyday life.”

Where once people could save costs by shopping direct from the butcher for wholesale meat, that was not always the case anymore.

And having to truck in goods to Central Otago was never going to be cheap, as it wasn’t the easiest place to get things to, she said.

But with minimum wage now at $23.50 - a young person could start out earning a respectable $48,880 salary for an unskilled job. There was a real change demographically, around what people nowadays considered expensive, she said.

“The community’s needs, wants and aspirations were now colliding with people’s ability to pay,” she said.

Local Government New Zealand vice-president and Mayor Campbell Barry said in March 2024, it was no secret that the funding system for local government was broken. 

Rates accounted for more than half council funding, and relying so heavily on rates alone was unsustainable.

“We need a range of levers to address the funding and financing challenges in front of us, such as an accommodation levy, GST sharing on new builds, congestion charging and tourist levies."

The CODC would make its final decision on the rates increase for the next year at the end of this month.