HOUSING POLICY IN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 10

HOUSING POLICY IN AUSTRALIA

Private Builders Active STEADY DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY “A noticeable feature in New South Wales and Victoria is the great extent of private enterprise,” said Mr. Eric E. Hendricksen, civil engineer, Wellington, who returned recently from Australia. “Sydney is rapidly towering upward, with many tall buildings all over the business part of the city, and this goes on in spite of rising costs and the slowness of fulfilment of steel orders.” There was not quite the same development in Melbourne, said Mr. Hendricksen, but conditions were steady and moving ahead solidly. In Victoria there was a slight retardation of private enterprise before the Victorian and Federal Parliamentary elections, but now everything was in full swing. Mr. Hendricksen said he had paid particular attention to housing costs in Australia. In most parts of the country there was a great deal of private speculative building. Small builders purchased sections and on them erected cottages for sale or rent. Four or fiveroomed houses in Brisbane and Newcastle drew about £l/5/- rent a week. The houses cost about £6OO and gave a rough average of 10/6 a square foot of enclosed floor area. The sections would be valued at £lOO and upward. Building costs in Tasmania were about 10 per cent, less than in Brisbane. Cost of Houses. In South Australia the houses were all of brick, stone or concrete. “Timber houses are not permitted,” said Mr. Hendricksen, “and there exists an old by-law prohibiting the use of timber for any construction.” The SoutH Australian Government had embarked on a building scheme, and had-already erected a number of dwellings,’including twounit buildings, which were a splendid type of house in permanent brick.

‘ “Last October the Housing Trust sought Parliamentary authority to increase the maximum costs of future buildings to be erected. This was due to rising costs. The maximum cost for the average type of single house of four rooms was fixed at 820 times the daily living wage, which at 11/7 gives a cost of £475. This was an increase of £25 on the previous figure. “The maximum income of tenants was fixed at eight and a quarter times the living wage, giving an increase from £4/10/- to £4/15/7 a week. The income of children was to be included in the weekly income. ‘‘The rent was adjusted so that instead of the previous fixed rate of 12/6 a week, the trust is given discretion to increase the rentals so long as the total rents collected do not exceed eight per cent, per annum of the aggregate cost of all houses of that group. Without this it was found impossible to erect dwellings at the maximum cost, to provide reading and kerbing where necessary, and to meet maintenance costs, rates, taxes, and interest.”