A BETTER YEAR.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19816, 2 January 1930, Page 4

A BETTER YEAR.

BUILDING TRADE RECOVERS. STATISTICS FOR THE CITY. Statistics supplied by the City Engineer's Department, show that the building trade made a substantial recovery in 1929, the increase over 1923 in the value of the construction authorised being over £150,000. The total for the year was short of £1,000,000 by only a, little more than the amount mentioned. It is dangerous to speculate about the prospects for the year now opening, but if even only the majority of the building projects now mooted reach fruition, 1930 should top the £1,000,000 mark. Should it do so it will be above the peak figure of 1926, when the value of the construction for which the City Council issued permits was £916,384. The following totals, covering a period of four years, furnish an interesting comparison:— 19<;>6 .. .. 916,384 3927 .. .. 654,823 19*8 ' .. .. 671,887 1929 .. •• 828,102 The year just closed saw a decline in house building, and apparently the demand for dwellings has now been fully met. All over the world one of the first problems to be tackled after the war was the provision of adequate housing for the people, the cessation of home building combined with other factors having resulted in the development of an acute situation. Gradually the needs of the people were met, and* in the Dominion, as in more populous countries, this problem has ceased to worry statesmen, social workers, and the public generally. Other factors in the decline in the number of permits the City Council is issuing for the erection of houses are the growth of suburbs outside the City area and the increasing tendency to live in flats, which is well illustrated by the large buildings now under construction to serve such a demand. The following table shows that the fallingoff in the number of houses being erected in the City is equal to fully 33 1-3 per cent., when 1929 is compared with 1926: — 1926. 1927. 1928. 1929. January ..59 39 45 35 February .. 55 40 41 *[ March -.80 46 46 34 April ..68 31 47 29 May ..28 41 60 , June -.73 44 50 42 July •• 71 55 4, 4o August .. -45 49 47 46 September .. 77 45 45 32 October .. 78 58 46 35 November .. 46 57 32 46 December .. 45 36 33 30 Totals .. 725 541 536 481 After a long period of quiescence the inner area of the City showed remarkable activity, several new warehouses being undertaken by contractors, in au dition to other commercial structures, and additions and renovations accounted for a large sum. The building of two new theatres is now in progress. Two of the big mercantile firms have made large additions to their wool stores, and motor firms have increased their accommodation. ' A feature of 1929 was the building of numerous blocks of shops in the suburbs, both far and near, the architecture of some of these reflecting the latest ideas as to convenience and attractiveness. It is evident that contemporaneously with the improvements to premises in the centre of the City, a decentralising movement is in progress in business as the suburbs reach further out, and the remaining big blocks of land near tram termini are sub-divided. New dwellings accounted for £405,122 of the City's building account for 1929, while new structures other than houses made a total of £161,162. The following table, which supplies a comparison of the monthly totals of permits for the past two years, shows that in only three cases did the 1929 aggregate show a decrease:—■ 1928. 1929. £ £ January .. 38,732 95,860 February .. 37,445 48,056 March .. 44,640 64,511 April .. 110,552 63.996 May .. 67,242 70.283 June 4 •. 54,594 75,182 July .. 45,994 72,200 August .. 53,069 66,140 September .. 68,046 36,893 October .. 47,599 102,809 November .. 53,023 92,013 December' .. 50,909 40,159 SYDNEY'S PROGRESS. IMPRESSIVE BUILDING FIGURES. In the past 11 years, over 109,900 buildings have been erected in Sydney at a cost of over £129,000,000. During 1929 expenditure on new buildings was over £16,000,000, about equal to the figures of 1928. This is the only period for many years in which the figures have not increased by leaps, due principally to the fact that the timber strike delayed the completion of many structures. The number of new buildings in 1929 was 9900. This total was exceeded in 1928 by nearly 2000. This is accounted for by the larger and more expensive flat, commercial, and residential buildings erected in 1929. Sydney's progress, in good times and bad, can be measured by its building figures. In 1924, 10,546 buildings at a cost of £6,775,548, were erected. Then the war intervened, and figures dropped to 4998 at £3,736,896 in 1918. Figures for the past six years are:— £ 1924—12,180 14,346.071 1925—10,939 11,587,149 1926—10,844 13,128,722 1927—10,8a5 14,226,990 1928—11,878 16,000,000 1929 9,921 16,000,000 The extent to which construction costs have been increased is strikingly illustrated by the fact that in 1924 the average was £698 a building, whereas this year it amounts to about £I6OO. Average cost of homes in the suburbs in 1925 was £BB7, compared with £899 in 1926. £995 in 1927, £9BO in 1928, and over £IOOO in 1929. This is due partly to the increased cost of labour and materia], but mostly to the fact that a better type* of building is being erected.