Just 12 applicants have so far been approved to enter the lottery for cut-price homes in Southside with the deadline just two week's away.

Applicants have until March 1 to return their forms for inclusion in the draw for the right to buy one of the 98 units at Harbourside Village for a price of $199,000. Harbourside Village spokeswoman Aideen Ratteray-Pryse said a further 69 people have had their mortgages pre-approved or were in discussions, although nearly 800 people had taken application forms.

She said a recent jump in applicants submitting forms indicated that people were only just realising how close the deadline was and if numbers didn't improve the lottery draw could be a hollow event.

"The people who were thinking they need to worry about it might not now. But the message seems to be getting through that the deadline is looming and it isn't going to move.

"People out there need to hurry up.

"It's important people realise banks are dealing with a lot of mortgage applications.

"If you have not already made an appointment, I would urge you to do so now and to check with the Bermuda Housing Corporation that the information they have is completely OK.

"People need to do things in parallel as opposed to one after another." The lottery will take place at a public drawing on June 3, 2005.

Information sessions for the market price units will be held every Thursday during February from noon until 2 p.m. on the veranda of the Public Library on Queen Street.

Another 98 homes are available at market prices ? so far 30 deposits have been taken while another 17 applicants are on hold.

At the moment applications are limited to first time buyers but will change if there is not sufficient take-up, said Mrs. Ratteray-Pryse.

"We don't have a particular date in mind, at some point we will open it up so the first time buyers need to get a move on." However the deadline for work on the project has again been pushed back as industrial tenants on the Marginal Wharf are given more time to move.

Work on the housing project had originally been due start in January but was then pushed to February 28 after tenants threatened not to budge.

Now work will start at the end of May but Mrs. Ratteray-Pryse said it will not delay the housing.

She said the project was still on target for completion in autumn, 2006 as the date had been a fairly conservative one from the outset.

The Bermuda Land Development Company is putting up new industrial buildings across the road in Southside for most of the Marginal Wharf businesses to move to.

However alternative space is being found for boating businesses which won't suit being put on an industrial park.

Harbourside Village has yet to take a lease on the land as it needs vacant possession to do so.

However Mrs. Ratteray-Pryse said Harbourside's lawyers and the Attorney General's chambers were in talks about the lease. The 16.6-acre site on St. David's Road will feature two-, three- and four-bedroom townhouses and duplexes and the community will include a playground, a village square with shops, childcare facilities as well as access to a marina and dock.