Red tape holds back new type of cheap house

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 12

Red tape holds back new type of cheap house

I By

PETER MINSON)

A Rangiora firm which is negotiating to sell 1000 one-design, threeIbedroom houses to Saudi 'Arabia has been impeded by red tape in this I country. Tasman Construction, Ltd. I has pioneered a simple “portal” design for houses, the prototype of which was on: display at the last Canter-i bury Agricultural and Pas-I tora! Show. The prototype was sold and transported to a Rakaia property. The manager of the firm, Mr Allistair Carter, developed the design after attending a seminar on gang-nail trusses.

DEMONSTRATION The result was an easily- 1 ’ built, comparatively cheap house based on gang-nailed - portals at eight-foot inter-J vals along the length of the:' house. The speed of the construction was demonstrated at last year’s show, when I Mr Carter challenged the I public, asserting that the house would be built in 13, days. It was. I i When the prototype was sold, under a State. Advances Corporation loan, Mr Carter advertised the houses, and, received orders from three 1 families on the West Coast. In Canterbury, he has taken about 40 orders. ,'. This was when Mr Carter’s trouble with authority;] began. The corporation’s I officers on the West Coast i did not favour houses which' were not locally built, and would not recommend a corporation mortgage. The three prospective buyers are still waiting for , notification of their mortgages. PERSISTENCE Mr Carter referred. the I matter to the newly-formed Housing Corporation in Wei- ! lington, but received little help, and it was not until he ' had travelled to Wellington : three times, and written personally to the Minister of J Housing, that provisional i acceptance of the design for corporation mortgages was given. The design was inspected ’ by the Building Research , Association of New Zealand, land approved. ! The design has been 1

accepted by the Christchurch; City Council, with conditions relating to the city’s: 'building ordinances, and a! meeting of building engineers from local authorities in Canterbury had - been : happy with the design, Mr Carter said. ' Meanwhile, Mr Carter had’ met a person (whom he did not wish to name) who had trading ties with the Saudi Arabian Government. ' Housing was short in that country, and after a special design, including servants’; quarters, was drawn up by! Mr Carter’s son once again, and a few minor alterations made, he left for Saudi Arabia, with plans and specifications, to negotiate the I possible sl4m deal.

The suggested houses would be built under licence by a North Island firm, in | sections, and would be transported to Saudi Arabia in containers. They would cost, including air-condi-tioning worth $4500, about $14,000. The contract would include 1000 of the houses, and facilities such as sewage plant would have to be sup- 1 plied from New Zealand. KITSETS The Christchurch firm which makes the gang-nail . plates has indicated that it would be prepared to move a machine from Miami to’ the area to make them on site. Internal framework would ibe produced in bulk for the ■l3sosq ft houses. Mr Carter said that New Zealand softwoods, of which the basic framework is con-; strutted, have not been used, before in Saudi Arabia, but would stand up to the climate. Mr Carter hopes to be able in three months to supply the first design, too, in kitset form. “The majority of kitset houses have failed because of all the instructions, and because the units are constructed using factory | i methods which the ordinary man can’t understand. “We hope to have this house ready so that the average guy will be able to put it up himself over the week-end,” he said. “But we need finance.” He asked why the Industrialised Building System’s modular housing plan was j

receiving so much money when his house, which already had people living in it, and was cheaper than the 1.8.5. houses, received- no help from the Government. “When Mr Rowling was Minister of Finance, he said he was going to close every loophole for excessive profits,” said Mr Carter, “and Mr Fraser, as Minister of Housing, was going to make

all builders toe the line to make them build cheaper houses.” He said that the objection I i of the West Coast officers! of the Housing Corporation' ;to outside builders taking; I! away local trade would in this eventuality be removed. A local builder would be; I given a franchise, and would; be supplied with components : from Rangiora. ■