£200 A HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 56, 3 September 1937, Page 10

£200 A HOUSE

SAVING IN GISBORNE

RESULT OF NEW TENDERS

. Reference to the saving effected by calling tenders a second time for the construction of dwellings in Gisborne and Hastings was made last night by Mr. J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Undersecretary in Charge of Housing. "It will be recollected," said Mr. Lee, "that''some time ago the Department of Housing Construction met with a very unsatisfactory response in its effort to secure tenders for a scheme of house-building in Gisborne, the tenders being about £300 above the tender for a similar type of house in other centres. The Department appreciated that there were certain items which must necessarily be more expensive in Gisborne because of freight charges, etc., but stated at the time that there was no reason for such exorbitant inflation as £300 a house. "Tenders have recently been called again for Gisborne, and are much more satisfactory, the saving in each instance as against the earlier tenders being well in excess of £200 a house. The name or names of the successful tenderers will be disclosed after the contracts have been submitted to Cabinet. "A similar position prevails in Hastings. Although the last Hastings tenders were not so highly inflated as the Gisborne ones, they ' s.till showed an appreciable difference over the same type of house in towns such as Masterton or1 Palmerston North. Tenders have been called a" second [time and there has been a most satisI factory response. "As a matter of fact," concluded Mr. Lee,' "a feature of recent tendering is the interest being taken by the building trade, although in two towns in the North Island and one town in'the South Island tenders have not been so easy to obtain. The difficulty of securing tenders in these places is attributable to the amount of other work available."