HOUSING ADVANCES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 42, 13 November 1936, Page 8

HOUSING ADVANCES

State Loans to Building Societies Suggested

EXPERIENCE OF 'BUSINESS

A suggestion that the 3 per cent, long-term loan money the Government fe offering to local bodies for housing schemes should also be made available to building societies for the same purpose was made yesterday by the secretary of the Wellington Permanent Building Society, Mr. J. L. Arcus. Mr. Arcus, who has bad a long and close association with the building society movement, expressed the opinion that as these societies had handled the business for years they could do the work with less risk of loss than could local authorities.

Mr. Arcus said that so far as building societies generally were concerned, they had experienced no difficulty in letting their money out. It was true there had been a slight falling-off in the number of applications for loans for housing purposes, because most people were waiting to see what the Government intended to do. He knew the present position was holding up several people who contemplated going in for a home. The work done by building societies generally to ease the housing situation was referred to by Mr. Arcus He explained that a company with which he was associated had built houses costing as much ns £lO5O for a deposit of £5O and In some eases less. In no cases were the rents fixed at over £l/10/- a week, and that paid the interest, principal, rates and insurance. The term was for 26 years. He doubted whether the State, either through the State Advances Corporat'on or its general housing scheme, could compete with that or provide any better terms.