INSURANCE FOR HOME BUYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 9

INSURANCE FOR HOME BUYERS.

I Some British insurance companies , have developed special endowment policies to assist house purchasers. One ! office, according to the "Manchester I Guardian," reports more applications i for mortgages on house property during j ' the last two years than since the com- j Ipan.v wrs started forty years ago. An I illustration will, show how a man may ! become his own landlord within twenty j years or leave his house free of debt in ! the event of his earlier death, without. I materially increasing his present anj nual outlay. Supposo a man of 30. with an available capital of £300. occupies » house renter! at £55 and valued at, say, £~00. He could acquire the house by borrowing from the insurance company £400. costing him for expenses, interest., insurance, and repayments only I about £40 a year. Deducting this from liis former yearly rent, £.i 5, there is a balance of £15, which should be sufficient in ordinary circumstances to pay the upkeep of his house. In the event of death of the borrower the debt due ,by him to the company is cancelled by i the maturity of the policy. Should the j borrower wish to redeem the loan at I any time before his half-yearly payIments are completed the company gives him every facility for doinsr so. SKY-SCBAPEHS. 14,000 PEOPLE IN ONE BUILDING. I Desiring to save London "from copyj ing mistakes which New York, Chicago, I and "other American cities now regret," j Mr. Raymond Unwin lias been studying i the architectural and traffic problems of '< the United States, says the I-ondcn "Daily Chronelo." He told the Royal Institute of British Architects some of the facts and lime- ! thing of the conclusions he had formed : from them. i He quoted a "witness at the Height !of Buildings Commission of New York, ,' who calculated that "the average time j taken to reach the thirtieth floor would ' equal that of taking the express train !on the subway to a spot a mile distant." i Some remarkable figures were given to show the effect of height in buildings on j pedestrians and vehicular traffic. J The day population of the Woclworth ' Buildinz "in New York, said Mr. Unwin, is 14,000. Allowing a maximum of ten persons walking abreast, this one building would pour into the streets co many j people as to require more than a mile I and a quarter of footways, and they ' would occupy half an hour in passing a given point. It was estimated that one person in ten in America owner a motor car. On that basis, the vehicles for the population in a building such as that of Woolworth's would require 4200 ft of roadway, or would form a queue between six and seven miles long. i "In view of these figures," Mr. Unwin (commented, "it is hardly surprising that the utility of the private car is diminishing." 60,000 Motor Cars. Advocates of higner buildings in Lon- , don view that it was the business of public authorities to find accommodation for any amount of traffic, and suggested that owners mighl agree to a moderate set-back to their buildings for every additional storey. I He was of opinion that such opera- ! tions would afford only a little local I relief in front of the building itself. ; Of the 00,000 cars owned by people ! living in the Loop area of Chicago only 3500 can find places where standing is ; permitted within thie area. Car owners 1 have appropriated for parking purposes the whole open space between Michigan • Avenue and the lake, which has been ' Eet aside for Grant Park, and it was no ' uncommon experience to find 25,000 i motors, or more than twice the numbsr j that would fill the streets of the Loop I area, parked at one time. . Comparing London with Chicago, Mr. Unwin forecasted an intolerable congestion if the land in the city could ; ever be used to the same degree of intensity as in the American city. With buildings of an average of only ! seven stories, he estimates that the day ; population would be 1,845,000 instead of the present 416,150. The streets : would have to carry four or five times J the present volume of traffic.