Trust Puts In Infrastructure for 44 Houses at Shotover Country

The Community Housing Trust is now in full swing with civil works at its 44 lot site in Shotover Country. The roads and services are expected to be completed by Christmas – with this part of the project costing $2m and supported by a loan from Community Trust of Southland.

Construction will be broken into blocks with three separate construction firms completing houses for the three blocks. The first stage is expected to begin at the end of this year, with the majority 44 properties scheduled for completion by December 2016.

Executive Officer, Julie Scott, said “we’re currently in negotiations with three building companies and expect to be in a position to announce these soon.”

The Trust is focusing on smaller homes and targeting a lower price range. Ms Scott comments “we have over 300 eligible households on our waiting list now. All of these are on low-moderate incomes with limited deposits. If we can drive the end price down we can assist more of these households. To do this we need to build smaller and smarter.”

The land was transferred from the developers at nil cost as part of their Community Housing contribution - an outcome of negotiations during the plan change process.

Trust Chair David Cole notes “this is a great example of a developer recognising the gain that results from a change in zoning and being willing to give something back to the community. We are grateful to the Stalkers for their contributions that help to retain affordable housing for the low income workers of our district.”

The project will be a mixed tenure development with some properties going into the Shared Ownership programme and others into one of Trust’s rental schemes.

The Trust’s first major development - Nerin Square, Lake Hayes Estate – has been hailed a success with several of the households having bought out the Trust and living on independently in the property.

ENDS

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