Weta feels rental pinch
Weta Digital is struggling to accommodate its staff during Wellington’s crippling rental climate.
The award-winning visual effects company, which has just picked up four awards from the Visual Effects Society this month, said it had been forced to look at alternative means of work in order to accommodate transport needs and staff housing.
Recent Trade Me figures revealed Wellington’s rental market had decreased by 70 per cent over the last year, with some property experts calling it the worst rental crisis in the city’s history.
The film-industry company, which has seen its staff numbers grow nearly as fast as its success rate, was feeling the pinch.
Executive producer David Conley said Weta Digital had grown by 175 per cent over the past four years – a boost from 650 staff to 1790.
Finding homes for those numbers of employees was an unexpected problem for Weta Digital, which helps new employees get settled in the city.
‘‘Not only for New Zealand residents but also for our short-term and long-term hires, we want to make sure they have as an attractive living arrangement as much as possible,’’ Conley said.
‘‘We are also looking at some work-from-home solutions because a lot of our IT technical crew have to take the train in.’’
As the company took on more contracts to create content for the likes of James Cameron’s four
Avatar movies, Sir Peter Jackson’s films and Marvel Studios, Weta Digital had forecast staffing levels of 2250 in the near future.
Office spaces in Miramar had become so full that Weta was now forced to search outside of the seaside peninsula, which is home to Jackson’s Park Road Post and Weta Workshop companies.
Just recently it opened a 350-seat office in Kilbirnie. Conley said premises were being sourced in Petone and Wellington CBD as well.
‘‘In looking at future expansion strategies, we now have to take into consideration additional concerns that we’ve never had to before, which is housing innovatory in the Miramar area, traffic congestions, power itself. We have to work more closely with the city in order to be able to find ways to accommodate our expansion plans, so we are continuing to look into those areas.’’
Bayleys regional general manager Grant Henderson said Wellington was ‘‘not going to see any relief in rentals’’ in the immediate future and rents would likely increase.
He said Wellington City Council was ‘‘really quite hard’’ on developers, making it difficult for new properties to be built. The council needed to adjust its mindset, and changes in the Resource Management Act were also needed, Henderson said.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said help was on the way for renters with a record 1600 building consents processed over the past year.
‘‘That’s double the historical average but it will take two years for those consents to be converted into actual houses ... likewise, this year, we’re looking at high levels of consents.’’
He would like to see large-scale development in the central city. ‘‘Over the next 10 to 15 years, I suspect we’ll have a doubling of the number of people living in the CBD ... that’s the ambition but it’s going to take a few years to realise.’’
The council had rules in place – such as no parking requirements for apartment blocks – that already made development easier, he said.
‘‘Over the next 10 to 15 years, I suspect we’ll have a doubling of the number of people living in the CBD.’’ Wellington Mayor Justin Lester