Charity House becomes family home

The 2024 Charity House Auction resulted in smiles all around.

The auction winners, the Prasad family, walked away with a brand new house for $385,000. 

The new homeowners are Shureta, Rahul, 12-year-old Aryan, and Ashreya, aged 10. Aryan and Ashreya are very excited about their new bedrooms.

"It’s a great house and the carpentry students have done a really good job on it and it looks really nice the way they’ve finished it all off — it looks very smart," says Rahul.

"We’re just happy we could contribute back to the community this way and support the students' education."
The Prasad family is moving the house to their property in Westwood and are looking forward to move-in day. 

This is the 18th year of the Charity House Auction. The beautiful three bedroom cedar-front house is built by Otago Polytechnic students, and the construction process provides learning opportunities across programmes including Carpentry, Electrical, Occupational Therapy and Architecture.

The Catalytic Foundation distributes the auction proceeds across a diverse range of Otago charities, benefitting the local community. 

Tracey McLennan, Head of Programmes for the College of Engineering, Construction and Living Sciences, says,

"Not only do our students learn from the process of constructing an entire house, they feel great about contributing to the community in the process."