• Hopeful first-home buyers need to be more realistic. It has always been hard to buy a home, I'm led to believe, and while median house prices are up around the million-dollar mark in many Bay of Plenty suburbs, there are others where the average price dwarfs in comparison.
• More homes need to be built and land made available. Tauranga has long been one of, if not New Zealand's, fastest-growing cities. And why wouldn't people want to live in this magnificent part of the world? However, the infrastructure is not up to scratch and there are similar problems in nearby Rotorua.
• We need to build up, not out. The New Zealand dream centres on the family home on a quarter-acre section but this is no longer tenable, especially for plenty of first-home buyers. Building quality housing in the form of a tall apartment building makes sense practically but also for our struggling CBDs, which would celebrate an influx of people.
These are not wild or sensational ideas, but at this rate who knows what might happen because, in my view, common sense doesn't seem to be applied much when it comes to the housing crisis.
We know what the problem is and we've had plenty of potential solutions offered over the years but still, from the perspective of a hopeful buyer, it seems like nothing or very little has been achieved. Why?
We've got a prime opportunity to show the rest of the country how to tackle these issues and how to provide for everyone in the community.
We cannot afford to delay this any longer because it is a problem that won't be fixed quickly.