6000th family to receive Homestart loan

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 2

6000th family to receive Homestart loan

A Christchurch family received a special. $12,000 cheque from the Housing Corporation yesterday re- < cognising them as the 6000th household to receive a Homestart loan. Lindsay and Sara Watts and their three young children were present at the site of their new home on Pages Road to receive the cheque from the Minister of Housing, Mr Phil Goff. Mr Watts, - with the assistance of his father-in-law, Mr Michael Kerr, an experienced builder, will erect their $55,000 house themselves. The Homestart loan, with a $36,000 loan from '■ the Housing Corporation, was essential before they could even dream of owning a place of their own, . said Mr Watts. Mrs Watts said, “If we didn’t have it we wouldn’t have been able to do it. It would have been about three or four years before we would have had enough money to buy or build.”

At present the Watts family is renting a two-

bedroom house in Yaldhurst. With three children under the age of four, living conditions were cramped, Mrs Watts said.

Mr Kerr said the new four-bedroom colonialstyle -house should be completed by the middle of April in time for winter. Mr Kerr said that at first they had had to battle to the Housing to grant a loan to build the house. The corporation estimated that a house of that size would cost $63,700 to build but Mr Kerr convinced it he could build it for $49,050, including labour. ... Mr Kerr said that having made that promise he and his son-in-law have had to work very hard to stick to budget. He works all day on the house and Mr Watts works between four and eight hours a day while holding down a full-time job elsewhere. The approval of the loan was confirmed just before Christmas. Work on the site began last week.