CHEAP HOUSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 196, 17 August 1920, Page 2

CHEAP HOUSES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your correspondent, S. A. Shaw, advocates the building of cheap houses of four rooms, which, he says, can be built for about £200. I have built many such houses, ranging from £200 to £400, but I find they do not sell because they lack the conveniences that everyone who wants a home expects to get, even if they can't afford to pay the price. A house of four rooms to be built for £200, or even £300, would be without a brick chimney, would have no range, no water laid on, no , gas, no copper and tubs, no* cupboards. It would be unlined and unpainted inside, would have four small rooms, but no passage; there would be no back verandah, no bathroom, no washhouse, no sink, and the section it stood on would be unfenced. Now, my experience is that house-hunters will not look at such a house, and if the Government built them no one would live in them. I agree with the suggestion of your correspondent that most of the houses now being built are too expensive, but to cut the mice of a four-roomed housp to £200 is almost impossible. I should be in favour of a syndicate or some institution controlling capital building a number of houses very plain and simple with a moderate range of conveniences, costing about £500 to £550 each. These houses, if built on sections costing not more than £150 each, could be sold for about £700 to £750 each, and they would sell very readily, and assist a class of home seekers who are not being provided'for at the present time.—T ana, etc., A BUILDER.