HOUSES WANTED

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3051, 12 April 1917, Page 6

HOUSES WANTED

POSITION IN WELLINGTON ABOUT "FLATS" AND "ROOMS" The prospect of a drastic curtailment of suburban railway services has set some additional families in search of hoines within the area served by the city tramway system, and so has stimulated a demand that already exceeded the supply, The house-hunters are finding, as others had found before them, that homes of any sort are exceedingly scarce, and very expensive in.AVellington, and their protests tend to show a tinge of bitterness. But it does not appear that a remedy lies within their reach. The house agents, who are growing rather tired of the effort to provode-the city's residential coat from an inadequate supply of cloth, can offer little comfort to their clients. Tho plain-fact is that many of the houses that are wanted are not in existence, while the rents of the houses that are available are often beyond the means of the families in need of homes.

There are houses to let within the area of Greater AVellington. Almost any agent can furnish a list of such houses. One agent stated. yesterday that he could recommend confidently a recently-built six-roomed house ready for immediate occupation. It was a very nice house. But it was situated near the top of a steep hill twelve minutes' walk from a tram, and the rent mentioned was 355. per week for a term. A cheaper house? Well, 355. a week was not overmuch for AVellington. The tenant might be able to let a room. Then there was a threeroomed cottage at Rona Bay for 20s. a week. Or a pleasant five-roomed house, not so very old, at Khandallah for 275. 6d. Still too dear? Well, what about a flat ?

This particular interview may have provided a somewhat exaggerated impression of the situation. The tenant who is prepared to go out on a threepenny or fourpenny section, and walk some distance to the tram, may find a house of from four to six rooms at a rent in the neighbourhood of 20s. a week. JBut these houses are seldom empty, and they have a, tendency to pass from hand to hand, so to speak, without entering the open market. The friend of the departing 'tenant gets in early with an application and secures the house., Hopes may be raised by an advertisement to the effect that a home in Brooklyn or Karori or Kelburn Extension, may be -leased at what the ordinary' man' regards as a reasonable rent, but in nine cases out of ten, at least, inquiry will show either that the place is entirely unattractive in itself or that \it is placed well back from the tram and well up, or well down, from the road level. It is easy to tell the house-hun-ter that he should not cavil at little inconveniences, of this kind, but he knows that his'wife is hkely to have pronounced views on the. point. He probably has learned, further, that bad access means not only many tram fares, but also lost time, wet clothes and troubles with tradespeople. "How manv houses could yon let at the present time, and how. many have yon on your books?" asked a Dominion reporter, in conversation with a land apnt yesterday. It appeared that nei-' ther question • could be answered offhand. "If you can pay £2 a week or over, there is no great difficulty about renting a house," the -agent said. "But most of i-he people feel it impossible to pay more than 255. at the- outside, and it is for them that the shortage is most pronounced, I havo six or eight reasonably cheap houses in my hands at the present time, but I am afraid they all have their -drawbacks from the point of view of possible tenants. One or two of them havo remained empty at times even when people were hard pressed for homes. I would not say as much if I were telling you where those houses are. How many good houses I could let at, say, 255. per week it is hard' to say, but I would like to have the chance of finding tenants for a hundred of them. I would undertake to let the lot within a week. There is nothing artificial about the 'shortage of homes in Wellington. The buildings are riot here, _ and that is why the process of pressing two or three families into, one house prooeeds."

"No, it would be hardly correct to say that we are developing the- flat svstem_ in "Wellington," added the agent in answer to another question. "We hear a lot about flats in Wellington, but in most cases the word is used inaccurately. An ordinary six-roomed house does not become two flats when two families occupy two rooms each and share TKe kitchen and conveniences. Most of the Wellington houses will not divide into flats, as the term is understood in countries where the flat system has_ been developed; they are simply subdivided in a rough way, and the people suffer ell the inconvenience of continual contact with one another and the resulting lack of privacy. Of course, there are some real flats in Wellington, and very attractive ones, too. A few of tho. big houses have had tho necessary structural alterations made, so that several tenants may live under x the same roof, but have their own entrances, their own kitchens, and their own bathrooms. Sometimes it is possiblo 10 make distinct flats of the stories of a two-story dwelling, by providing an extra kitchen and conveniences, and 'this arrangement works well in many cases. But I object to the use of the word 'flat' in relation to more r rooms'." •

The letting of rooms in Wellington has long been a very common practice, and-there is no' doubt that present conditions ar,e making it more general than ever. If a wage-earner or a man on small salary is forced to pay from 255. to 30s. for a home, ho is" likely to look round for a tenant who will.take one or. two of his rooms and so help pay the rent. The trouble does not end there. The landlord discovers that there aro two families in his house, and that his actual tenant is paying perhaps no more than 15s, a week rent. So when opportunity offers the rent of the house is raised. Then the tenant, having learned" something of tho sub-letting busiuess, may become ambitious. He will take an eightroomed house at £2 a week, let four rooms, and live as cheaply and probably rather more comfortably than ho did in the smaller home. The tendency of the whole process is to force rents up, and in the end to accentuate the evils that make Wellington a notoriously bad place for the home-maker.

• it is a common error to" suppose that the shortage' of houses in Wellington is brought about by a shortago of land available for building purposes. There is room for thousands of houses on unoccupied land within easy reach of the trams. A visit to any of the suburban areas served by the tramway system will show not only that there is plenty of vacant landj but also that much of "Ellis land lies within the areas on which building has actually begun. Very many suburban dwellers ride and walk past vacant land on their way to their homes, which have been set bade presumably, on the score of cost. Having in mind this fact, the rouortei asked a gentleman who is interested in house property why more homes werenot built. The answer was that tbo high cost of building, the uncertainty as to conditions after tho war, and the unsatisfactory conditions of the leasing system, . were all factors in discouraging the erection of houses for leasing purposes. "The land is labour, is expensive, and

materials arc expensive," said the gentleman. "My own experience is that a .house built under present conditions, if it is built faithfully and not merely rushed up for sale, must bear a rent which the public will regard as too high. Then who can say that there will be as keen, a demand for houses when the war is over, and the camps are closed? The conditions just now are exceptional. I am not going to build ,any houses just now, and I may say~Miac the houses I have got are not nearly as profitable as somo people imagine them to be. I would bo better off and a great deal less worried ff I could sell the lot at a reasonable prico and put the monev into "War Bonds."