Warm and secure portable houses for Christchurch

MEDIA RELEASE 20 April, 2011

Jennian Homes launches warm and secure portable houses for Christchurch

Jennian’s two Canterbury franchises will soon begin building the first homes for Christchurch families displaced by the quake.

The two, three and four-bedroom homes have been specially designed to provide temporary shelter. However there is nothing temporary about the houses themselves.

Typical of those the company already builds as farm cottages, they will be fully lined and finished and ready to move into, with all the facilities you'd expect in a small house.

Once they are no longer needed they can be easily transported off site and used elsewhere. In the meantime, families who have been forced to camp out in garages and motorhomes will enjoy fully insulated living spaces with double glazing and heat pumps as the weather turns colder.

They'll be safer, too, with all homes fitted with smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. “The benefits of having a warm, secure space to come home to cannot be underestimated,” says Jennian Homes Canterbury director Bruce Maetzig.

“People in the city have been through hell. Families have lost everything. We’re proud to be able to do our bit.”

The Department of Building and Housing announced last week that Jennian Homes was one of three New Zealand companies selected to provide the first of 300 “temporary accommodation units”.

Nigel Smith, managing director of Jennian Homes Mid Canterbury, said Jennian was thrilled to have won the contract.

“Building these homes will provide a vital boost to the local economy, creating jobs and keeping local tradespeople in work.”

It’s estimated that as many as 5,000 families may need somewhere else to live while quake-damaged homes in the city are repaired and rebuilt.

ENDS

© Scoop Media