LOANS FOR HOUSE BUILDING

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25550, 19 July 1948, Page 6

LOANS FOR HOUSE BUILDING

“£l5OO SUFFICIENT* STATEMENT BY MR SKINNER (P^ o > AUCKLAND, July 18. mX =«t,^ ad been n ° re Ports of for* mer servicemen declining to take up taHAn*n nte s to 4hem hy the Rehabilitation Department for house building or C » a r'l S 4 <>f a dls P ar >ty between the cost m»™ e f tlng the building and the tnaxi£lsoo, said the Minister - “f.puhabihtation (Mr C. F. Skinner). . p lnner a greed that there were J?A,. men who, having obJ ain ed eligibility certificates for the of ? * oan ’ had not taken it Many of them had temporary accommodation, and because of high 2 11 ? s^or tages, were prepared to ' yai I t , u ef ? r u build >ng- There was not labour or materials to build all the houses required. c-Sn some reservations, a loan of ±.1500 was sufficient to cover the cost of building a reasonably suitable house at the present time, said Mr Skinner. In Auckland and Wellington a man would need to own his section to keep within that figure. Costs varied with localities, and to a considerable degree by the design of the building. The Government’s policy was to build many reasonable homes, rather than a few luxurious ones. For the building of new homes, the department had granted 8778 loans, totalling £12,525.930. That represented an av orage of £1426 each. The 12,315 loans granted for the purchase of houses already built totalled £12,347,116, an average of about £lOO3 each.