The Ashburton District's population is ageing, and pressure is already starting to mount around where they will live.

The district has a higher than average proportion of older residents compared to the rest of the country, with 17.9% of the district's population aged over 65 (according to 2018 Census data) - higher than the 15.2% of the total New Zealand population.

That figure is forecast to rise and as the number of elderly increases, the demand on the district's elderly housing stocks is set to grow.

The Ashburton District Council owns and maintains 102 elderly housing units, available for people over 65 years of age, across six complexes spread throughout Ashburton, Methven, and Rakaia.

Out of those units, 93 are currently occupied.

The council wait list currently sits at 25 and had been around 20 in 2021.

Council business support general manager Leanne Macdonald said increased demand has been noted in the past few years and the council was yet to consider increasing the number of units.

Of the nine vacant units, two are currently being redecorated and one is waiting on repairs and one is available to be tenanted.

The remaining five units are in Friendship Lane where the council is progressing a staged demolition and rebuild.

Due to the design of these units, it is uneconomic to carry out the upgrades necessary to comply with the Healthy Homes Standards, Macdonald said.

Four units are scheduled for demolition and the other unit is outside of phase one, but is beyond refurbishing, she said.

The units have been vacant for some time, one since August 2021, and the most recently vacated one was in November last year, Macdonald said.

The council is seeking government funding to help with the project through the affordable housing fund.

The council had signed off the concept for the rebuild project, in public excluded, in September but it is yet to go to tender.

The council operates the units as a self-funding activity, so there is no rate impact and progressive rent increases until 2027/28 are planned to meet the rent levies necessary for the elderly housing activity to continue to be self-funding.

There are other options aside from the council-owned units.

The Ashburton Housing and Support Trust, trading as Haven Housing, started in 2018 with the strategic goal to build a stock of community housing options across the district for people 60 and over.

The trust purchased Cameron Courts, the independent living components of a former retirement complex, offering nine units.

It is also building 17 units at Mona Square, leasing land that was formally occupied by eight council-owned elderly housing units.

Due to demand outstripping the supply they will all be open tenanted, Haven Housing chairperson Jackie Girvan said.

“We are going through the applications now and we already have more applications than we have units so some people are going to miss out,” Girvan said.

Once the 17 units are completed, Haven Housing will look forward to its next development as the demand will continue to grow, Girvan said, “particularly as people without home ownership come up to this age”.

Paying private rental prices is difficult for people on a pension, Girvan said.

“When superannuation first came in it was supposed to be 80% of the average wage, well it certainly isn’t that now.

“It makes things tricky going into retirement without any other money behind you.

“If they are in a private rental, they can’t afford private rental rates.”

Under superannuation, a single person living alone gets just under $500 a week to live on, while a couple can get around $760.

It still comes down to affordability and eligibility, she said.

“Some people will be forced into the rental market until their assets come down.”

There are some other providers of elderly housing, or social housing available to the elderly in Ashburton.

Those in the financial position and own their own homes have the option of downsizing to one of the district's retirement villages.

Age Concern Ashburton president Jan McClelland said the waitlists for elderly housing are evidence the district doesn’t have enough.

“With a rising older population, is it ever going to be enough?”

The demand for affordable housing and rentals is a problem across the country, and not just for the elderly, but across demographics, McClelland said.

“The pressure on housing everywhere is impacting a range of people.”

For the elderly, there are options but they are determined by their financial circumstances, McClelland said.

By Jonathan Leask