A NATION OF HOME OWNERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 65, 18 March 1930, Page 6

A NATION OF HOME OWNERS.

Mr. Harold Bellman, chairman of the Metropolitan Building Societies' Association, read a paper at the London School of Economics recently on "The Building Society Movement." From the beginning of the present century, he said, the total assets of the movement revealed, in the main, a very gradual upward tendency, until the total of £05,000,000 was reached in 1913. Building society statistics showed little change during the war, but following the signing of the Armistice the progressive tendency was again apparent. Total assets amounting to £107,000,000 were recorded in 1922. From this point the figures showed a continuously increasing rate of' progress, a total of £208,000,000 having been relumed for 1928, the last year for which official figures were available. To a large extent _ this was a reflection of the abnormal housing situation which existed in this country shortly after the war. To-day there were approximately 1000 societies in Great Britain; but 35 of the large societies were responsible for two-thirds of the total balances outstanding on mortgage securities for all societies, and for nearly three-fourths of the new advances. Each of the 35 societies had balances due on mortgages exceeding £1,000,000, and at the present time several had a balance which ran into tens of millions of pounds. On the other hand, there were upwards of 900 smaller societies in the country, many of them drawing their share capital and making advances within a few miles of their offices. There could be no doubting the fact that the British were definitely becoming a nation of home owners. The extent to which home ownership, proceeded denoted a social revolution —silent, bloodless, but highly beneficent. And doubtless it would inculcate a high sense of individual responsibility, which should prove a valuable safeguard against the dangers which some observers perceived in the wide adoption of democratic government. They were fast approaching a day when house purchase would be the rule, and renting the exception. The spread of this inbred desire for possession and for the security of a personallyowned home would continue to provide the bulk of building society business for many years. *