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BRADEN FASTIER / Things
SnapIT CEO Chris Rodley wants to keep his Nelson-based tech company, but wants housing affordability issues addressed to ensure talent attraction isn’t hampered by high costs and the low supply.
SnapIT CEO Chris Rodley has never had trouble attracting potential employees to relocate; the biggest hurdle is helping them get into a house.
Rodley said that while he wanted to keep his Nelson-based technology company SnapIT, the company’s potential growth combined with unaffordable housing could mean moving to another center in the future.
“I need to be able to attract talent and people need places to live. Nelson is a great place to live, but the rents are ridiculous. And when it gets to the stage where developers working at a tech company can’t afford their own house; Wow.”
The day an employee told you they couldn’t take on a position because they couldn’t afford to move to Nelson would be “the day they would start thinking about moving our operations elsewhere.”
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The housing shortage in Nelson-Tasman means the number of available rental properties has plummeted, a knock-on effect of the region’s burgeoning housing market.
Established in 2007, Rodley’s business provides camera monitoring and tracking equipment to more than half of New Zealand’s fishing fleet.
His international clientele includes the North American fishing industry, the United States Government, as well as construction and tourism projects that garnered up to 10 million impressions online each week.
The company employed about 30 people, coming from Nelson and outside the region.
“There is great talent in Nelson, but at the end of the day there is a limited supply when you hire 20 developers, so we had to look outside.
“I would often go to Auckland to do interviews and ask them if they would be willing to move here; before finishing the sentence, the answer came; ‘yes’.”
However, the selected candidates found it problematic to find suitable accommodation for Nelson.
“It took a man six months to find a place when it really should have been one.”
Virginia Woolf / Stuff
Nelson Homes in the Britannia Heights area of Port Hills.
“They ended up living in someone’s guest room, on the ground floor, next to the laundry room; it was disgusting how much the rent was, almost exploitation.”
To soften the blow of finding accommodation, some local businesses have previously offered financial incentives to prospective employees.
Nelson’s law firm, C&F Legal, listed job openings for two senior attorneys online in October 2015, with benefits including parking, gym membership, and a $ 25,000 deposit for a home.
JOSEPH JOHNSON / Things
CoreLogic researcher Kelvin Davidson on the state of the Nelson-Tasman real estate market in 2020.
Aucklander Danny Wu was the successful candidate at a time when median home prices in Nelson were $ 385,000 compared to $ 914,300 in central Auckland.
The deal tied the employee to the company for five years.
Wu stayed for about 12 months before returning to the North Island due to personal circumstances.
Tim O’Connell / Stuff
C and F Legal Nelson Director Rick Farr says that bringing talent and developers to the region will depend on a greater effort to promote Nelson Tasman as a destination.
C&F Legal Director Rick Farr said the promotion was “a significant success” simply because it caught Nelson’s attention.
“We would consider doing something like that again, a lot, but it should be relevant for the moment.
“In those days it was difficult for people, and I suppose they still do, putting together a deposit for a house … now it’s more like, can I find a house?”
Farr said more efforts are needed to promote the broader Nelson Tasman region to attract talent and developers in other parts of the country.
“Competition between the regions is fierce and they all want to attract the right people; one of my concerns is that we have not kept pace in promoting our region.”
Nelson Regional Development Agency Executive Director Mark Rawson said housing affordability and supply were identified as the top challenges in the talent attraction and retention research conducted in 2019.
The organization has worked with the Nelson City Council, the Tasman District Council, the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce, iwi, and regional government agencies to implement the Kōkiri Project and economic recovery plan earlier this year.
MARTIN DE RUYTER / Things
Mark Rawson, Executive Director of the Nelson Regional Development Agency, speaks at the launch of Project Kokiri, Nelson Tasman’s Economic Response and Regeneration Action Plan.
Some housing market challenges included the effect of entities like AirBnB on the rental market, seasonal work accommodation, and an aging population that has a greater capital capacity to pick up available stocks compared to young families that they come to the region in search of work.
“We have a pretty specific focus on that middle-aged talent attraction, which is sometimes lost in conversation.
“It’s not that we don’t support those who bring independent wealth to the region, but when younger families move to the region, they are the ones who contribute to the schools, to the sports clubs and they will be the future of the community. . “
Rawson said the Kōkiri Project was also interested in supporting housing proposals like the Maitahi-Bayview development, which offered a balance of properties.
