Sun-Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1953 - 1954), Sunday 14 March 1954, page 13


Quick, Cheaper

Home Plan

BANK AIDS

PURCHASERS

Australia's first Project Build-ing Co-operative Society, launched last week, raised fresh hopes for the homeless, building authorities said yesterday.

The society will provide finance for people wishing to buy homes which are being constructed on a mass production basis known as "project building."

Contractors engaged on the project at Wooloo-ware, near Cronulla, clairr. they are able to cut costs by about £500

a house.

The executive director of the Building Industry Con-gress, Mr. D. Stewart Fraser, said yesterday that the Bank of New South Wales had agreed to provide £100,000 to finance purchasers of the

homes.

The president of the Building Industry Congress, Mr. S. D. C. Kennedy, was appointed chairman of the co-operative society.

Mr. Fraser said a British firm, Taylor Woodrow (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., had launched the Woolooware project for 32 homes.

It opened up a new era lin home building in Aus-

tralia.

"We believe this is only the beginning of a move-ment that will make a ter-rific impact on the acute shortage of homes," he said.

Credit Appeal

"Congress has appealed to the Commonwealth Govern-ment to make more credit available to people to buy homes through project build-ing schemes.

"Other contractors are in the field ready to launch projects as soon as they know that people can raise finance to buy the homes,

"Project building means

that the contractor takes over a big area of land, puts down the roads and other services and builds the homes on a production-line basis.

"Costs can be cut because all materials are delivered in bulk to the one site, and the teams of workmen work from house to house as con struction proceeds.

"These economy opera-tions will provide cheaper houses more quickly and will have a beneficial in-fluence on the overall cost

structure.

'The contractor must

bear the initial outlay with

all the risks involved and he

gets no payment for a home until it is acceptable to the

customer.

"The eventual price of a home is determined at the outset of the project,

also the specifications . which the contractor must observe."

The managing, director of Taylor Woodrow (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Mr. John Hanson, said all 32 homes in the Woolooware project had been sold at these prices:

Brick, two bedrooms, £2,950.

Brick, three bedrooms, £3,950.

Finance Need

"We could reduce these prices further if we were able to launch bigger pro-jects," said Mr. Hanson..

"But our activities in Aus-tralia are limited by the re-stricted amount of finance available to home pur-chasers. . .

"We could build 1,000 houses a year in New South Wales if we were

assured that the people

could raise the finance to buy them."

Mr. Hanson said the homes at Woolooware would be completed at the rate of one a week.