THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1976 Money to buy used houses

Press, 20 October 1976, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1976 Money to buy used houses

The rehabilitation of many of the country's older but structurally sound houses has much to commend it It would make full use of services in the older established parts of towns, save some of the cost of developing new housing areas, and prevent the blight of inner city and older suburban neighbourhoods. But the policies of many lending institutions and particularly the policies of the Housing Corporation (apart from its seldom-used housing improvement loan service) have discouraged young couples from buying older houses and has steered them towards new houses in recentlydeveloped outer suburbs. This has not only deprived the community of the benefits that could have been expected to flow from the judicious renovation of some older, sound houses but also imposed a greater burden of debt on young couples than they would have had to shoulder had they been helped to purchase an older, cheaper house. The Government has recently shown itself aware of these problems. The Minister of Housing (Mr Gair) has announced that the Government will gradually increase the proportion of what the State contributes towards financing people into their own homes to enable young couples with relatively little money to buy inexpensive used houses which they can do up at their own pace. More recently still, Mr Gair made it clear that the Government is also aware of the wider economic and social advantages of prolonging the life of older houses. He told the Asian Pacific Real Estate Congress that the Government favoured more effective and better planned use of existing urban

areas over the construction of “ new towns ” and regarded the rehabilitation of ageing but structurally sound dwellings as part of this new policy.

The catch is that if more money is lent to help people buy existing houses less will be available to sustain the house building industry’. The building industry may, accordingly, be cool towards the idea, especially since it has been broached at a time of concern about the depressed state of the market for new houses and flats. The Government hopes to avoid this difficulty by lending for the purchase of a used house if the seller of the used house plans himself to buy a new house or flat. This should allow the Government to achieve its goal of encouraging the renovation of existing houses without greatly diminishing the money available to finance new house construction, particularly because numbers of old people each year are keen to sell their older, larger houses so as to be able to buy new, smaller, more convenient ownership flats.

So long as the Government does not change its policy under pressure from the building industry, more than a few houses here and there could be saved from premature deterioration or demolition. The National Housing Commission has estimated that there are at least 100,000 houses 60 or more years old which would be worth rehabilitating. In some situations “ urban renewal ”, by way of improvements to individual existing properties would be both cheaper and more satisfactory than “ urban renewal ” through sweeping clearance and new construction.