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There is also provision for mortgage repayment insurance on both building and purchase loans, and, if necessary, the premium may be added to the loan. In certain cases premium loading resulting from impairment of health due to war service is paid by the Government. In addition to the suspensory loans scheme, supplementary interest-free loans are granted in certain circumstances to ex-servicemen borrowers. These supplementary loans are intended to help compensate for the increase in building costs which took place over the war years. They are not repayable or interest-bearing while the ex-serviceman continues to own and occupy the house. Their amount is limited to 5 per cent, of the approved cost, with a maximum of £lOO in the case of a new house and £75 in the case of a bought house. In line with the policy of giving priority to ex-servicemen, half of the sections released for balloting by the Housing Division are made available to them ; and where for special reasons, such as war disability, such a course is justified, a section may be sold to an ex-serviceman without a ballot. In large State housing areas sections are reserved for doctors, preference again being given to qualified ex-servicemen. An indication of how building of new homes by ex-servicemen has increased since the Government's housing policy was announced in March this year is given in the following table of rehabilitation building loans for the first eight months of 1950 : Number. Amount. January .. .. 92 130,728 February .. .. 86 124,815 March .. .. 85 129,195 April .. .. 152 247,323 May .. .. 326 520,989 June .. .. 332 556,498 July .. .. 321 543,986 August .. .. 357 619,472 Totals .. 1,751 £2,873,006 The figures for the five months in 1949 which correspond with the five months in 1950 during which the new policy has operated, are — Number. Amount. April .. .. 155 226,785 May ' .. .. 210 290,575 June .. .. 171 252,910 July .. .. 200 292,594 August .. .. 214 312,725 Totals .. 941 £1,375,589 Housing Ex-servicemen Farmers Should an ex-serviceman own or buy farm lands on which there is no suitable house or farm buildings he can obtain a rehabilitation building loan at the usual rates. In addition, loans are granted to suitable ex-servicemen to acquire small areas of land capable of intensive cultivation. If such an area does not include a house, loan assistance can be given .to build one. On Crown land, and on land bought for ex-servicemen, settlement loans can be obtained by ex-servicemen settlers on houses built by the Housing Division or by the Lands and Survey Department. Temporary accommodation, built to allow development work to proceed, can also be bought by the settler on loan terms when his permanent home is completed.

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