Letters: Rotorua Lakes Council should partner with private investors

Private equity partnerships could fund more pensioner housing in Rotorua. Photo / File

We are all concerned as a community at the shortage of housing and the scarcity of council-owned flats.

I am aware, as a real estate agent for 53 years, that Rotorua has a healthy population of very rich residents with old money - they do not flaunt it but it is there.

It would not be difficult, given the right guidance, to gather some of these people together with iwi to accumulate enough money to build enough units to house these families.

Council has the land (the essential ingredient), private equity build the units and receive a modest return on their investment (probably better than the banks) while the council collects the rents, maintains the units out of income and distributes dividends to investors.

Alf Hoyle
Lynmore

Lakefront too expensive

John Pakes (Letters, August 7) has come out swinging in favour of the proposed Lakefront development saying to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, we must proceed full steam ahead.

Rotorua residents on mass want our Lakefront to remain as is, it is a unique feature of Rotorua and should be celebrated not destroyed so a few five-star visitors can go "wow".

The Lakefront development is budgeted to cost $40m of which we ratepayers are expected to stump up half which will have to be borrowed. The rest is not free money folks, but that of the taxpayers.

I agree the frontage looks tired but, in my view, it is not beyond repair and just needs a tidy up not a major facelift and a commitment to employ people to keep it looking good on a day-to day basis.

Wind from a northerly quarter will push weed against the boardwalk as it does to the frontage now and will be impossible to keep clean.

We simply cannot afford this development while we have a museum and performing arts centre to get up and running and a failing infrastructure to fix.

Peter Jones
Council candidate

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