GROUP BUILDING SCHEME

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27427, 13 August 1954, Page 10

GROUP BUILDING SCHEME

550 SECTIONS MADE AVAILABLE HOUSES FOR SALE WITHIN A YEAR Distributed between Hornby and Dallington, about 550 sections have been made available under the group house building scheme in Christchurch. Under the scheme, the houses will be built within a year for sale. In addition, the prospect is that more than 600 State rental houses will also be built during the year. The big Government subdivision at Hornby will ultimately provide 550 sections, of which 185 will be built on this year, 150 being under the group scheme. Those sections have been fully developed, with sewer and water installations. At Papanui, a block for group building of 235 houses is unserviced. Allocations to group builders in other localities are:—Dallington, 80 sections; St. Albans, 40 sections; Shirley, 35 sections; and a number in the New Brighton district. The State housing block at Aranui will provide 400 sections when fully developed. The Housing Department will build 100 houses there this year. About 30 Christchurch builders are participating under the group scheme. Briefly, the principle of the scheme is that the builder sets out to erect a group of houses, the size of the group depending on the capacity of his organisation and the number of houses he can build within a year. The Government supports him by giving an undertaking to take over unsold houses at a previously agreed upon price and the Government undertaking can then be used by the builder in arranging, if necessary, for additional finance through his trading bank to cover the cost of construction. The total since 1938 of State rental and department houses handed over by the Housing Department for occupation was 6658 in the Christchurch district at March 31 last, when an additional 345 house units were under construction. Of that total 6050 were State rental houses. Last year, the houses handed over totalled 627, a figure, which may be reached again this year. Houses handed over since the State scheme was introduced were: 1938-48. 3279: 1949. 652: 1950, 605; 1951, 533; 1952, 441: 1953, 521.