Home-build package helps quake survivors

Peta and Roger Ford, with their children Jamie 9yrs and Joshua 7yrs at their new Papamoa home in Golden Sands.

After surviving the trauma of the Christchurch earthquake, the last thing Peta and Roger Ford wanted was to design and build a house themselves.

"We didn't want to have to deal with anything," Peta Ford says.

"We just wanted to say, 'We like that plan, now make it happen and here's our budget'."

The couple moved north with their children after their Parklands home was damaged in the February 2011 quake. They are among a growing number of migrants from Christchurch and Auckland who have opted to buy house-and-land packages in the Bay.

After researching building companies, the Fords chose to go with Venture Developments because they liked the contemporary design of its homes.

"We didn't want to be brick-and-tile. We wanted to be something a bit funkier," says Peta, 39.

Husband Roger, 48, says Venture's showhomes are appealing and the company offers mono-pitch roofs as standard, whereas they come at additional cost with some other firms.

Budget was a consideration, particularly because the family was reliant on one income.

Roger, an accountant, says a house-and-land package is preferable to buying land and building separately because there is no initial outlay for a section, nor instalments: just a deposit and then the balance on completion of the house. The cost for their 550sq m site and 202sq m home in Papamoa East is $470,000, and they opted to spend an extra $20,000 on full landscaping, a higher-specification kitchen, and wood laminate in the living area as opposed to the standard option of carpet and tiles.

Peta says the bank is happy to lend the extra money because Venture has a good reputation.

The build took four months and the couple and their children, Jamie, 9, and Joshua, 7, moved in on November 15 last year - the exact day the company promised.

Peta has heard horror stories from people who have not enjoyed working with building companies, but she says Venture is upfront about costs and the process was effortless. "I'd do it again with them in a heartbeat."