HOUSING COSTS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 14

HOUSING COSTS

Reduction In Rate Of Increase MINISTER REVIEWS PROGRESS Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. August 10. Government .action has tended to reduce the rate of increase in building costs, the Minister of Housing (Mr W. Sullivan) says in the 1955 Housing Report, tabled in the House of Representatives today. There are indications that construction costs in some New Zealand towns and cities may have reached a peak, the report says. Thus, competition resulting from an easing of urgent demand should cause a reduction iu price, if component coats of materials and wages remain stable. Overtime allowances have added to costs, and in places like Wellington, where many of the remaining housing sites are sloping and difficult, there have been extra costs for foundations, the report says. Demands by homeownai for more built-in furniture, fittings, and other amenities have all tended to increase construction costs. Some group builders, however, have achieved substantial reductions in construction costs, especially in Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, and Tauranga. Costs have been kept down by the increased installation of mechanical aids, which have reduced the total man-hours required to complete each house, says the report. The shortage of developed house building sites is a serious problem, the report says It is hoped that local authorities will do “very much more" to speed up the acquisition of land and its development, but it will be some time before they can enter the field to any appreciable extent. In the meantime, the Government will have to bear the brunt at the demand for sections to meet the accelerated housing programme over the next two years of so, says the Minister. The Ministry of Works is engaged on an intensive drive to provide 17,000 developed sections for housing during ths period. To accomplish this, an available sources of skill, staff and equipment must be used “and even then fulfilling this programme will present difficulties.” Dealing with finance, the report says the State Advances Corporation during the year authorised £10,900.658 in loans. Of the total, civilian loans accounted for £7,794,137, and rehabilitation loans for £3406,521. The figures represented an increase of more than 25 per cent, on the previous year.