Letters to the editor: Couch potatoes and 'quick buck rentals'

Are long-term rentals or shorter, sharper options the answers to NZ's housing crisis, questions a reader. Photo / NZME

Couch potatoes - that is what we are becoming.

I have just seen an advertisement for a leg exerciser priced just under $300, and the electric thing that moves your legs a couple of inches - presumably to stop you from becoming completely rusted up.

So walking is now becoming a completely unnecessary activity?

Surely it's cheaper to buy a dog, get off your fat butt and walk?

Jim Adams
Rotorua

More research needed for NZ's housing saga

Some edgy thinking by Delight Gartlein (Letters, July 20) around the use of rental properties for short-term stays, as opposed to long-term rentals, is interesting.

We claim that it takes a village to raise a child and short-term housing does not lend itself to the stable environment children thrive in.

This current trend toward quick buck rentals has reduced housing stocks, contributing to today's crisis.

However, we mess with private ownership at great peril, public acceptance of socialism seems a long way off.

The thorny problem of housing in New Zealand has the Government shrugging its shoulders right now with words being the only sign of progress.

Material and tradespeople shortages hinder, and frankly, some real innovative thought is needed.

We need to research solutions from other countries - and perhaps give up our dreams of the Kiwi Quarter Acre. Ouch!

John Williams
Ngongotāhā