SHORTAGE OF HOUSES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 13

SHORTAGE OF HOUSES

'Figures Reveal Decrease in Building NEED STILL ACUTE There is still an acute shortage of houses in Wellington. Within a fewweeks the Government cottages at Miramar will be tenanted, but that will not ease the situation to any extent. Probably the best test is to take the building figures over a period of years. In 1929, just before the depression, building was brisk and many dwellings were added to the eity each month. The number of dwellings (separate buildings for the housing of people) erected was between 800 and 900, whereas last year’s figures show that something like one-fourth of that number were erected within the boundaries of the city. There was a decided peak of house-building in 1930, and then the figures dropped to zero. With the Government building subsidy, the trade became gradually, but not very enthusiastically, active, and 1934 and 1935 saw a noticeable improvement. This was counteracted in 1936, when the Government policy of rentrestriction came into force. Building almost stopped dead, except, for Government activity and the big insurance companies. Then came the Government housing scheme as a palliative. This scheme provides for a few hundred well-built cottages, all on the small side, throughout the Dominion. They are suitable for married couples and those with very small families, but there is no encouragement in their size to have more than one or two children.

It is contended by house and land agents that these cottages do not begin to meet the real demand —the demand of people who can afford to live in houses a little larger, and if the Government intends to carry on with its housing scheme, it has been suggested that two-story houses with larger rooms and a little bit of laud might be just as eagerly- tenanted as the Miramar cottages. The latest figures bear out the contention that building is decreasing in Wellington. The following are the city council’s figures, which do jiot include any Government work, for the past four months, compared with the corresponding period of last year:—

Decrease this year £49,992. When these figures were submitted to one immediately interested, be said he was not at all surprised. On top of the Government housing scheme which, with the rent-restricting legislation, deterred people from building, there were other factors at work. The cost of building had advanced at least 25 per cent, last year, and the city rates and land tax were increasing. There was another jump of 10 per cent, in the rates this year. How • could people pay these increased charges on the old rents obtained during the depths of the depression? Yet that was what many hundreds of landlords were being asked to do. The logical answer to such a trend was to stop building. “People speak of the Government cottages as likely to effect a cure,” he said. “Wellington wants 900 new houses, not 90, each year, and wants them for 10 years to come.”

No. Permits, 1936. £ No. Permits, 1937. >■'£ April .. 117 128,673 121 53,719 May . .. 121 47,025 116 59.320 June . .. 125 66,646 135 68,106 July .. 130 65,565 114 77,372 Total value £308,509 £258,517