WHY HOUSES ARE DEAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 46, 24 February 1920, Page 7

WHY HOUSES ARE DEAR

FACTORS IN BUILDING

ECONOMIES TO BE EFFECTED

Views of an; architect.

Everyone is more or less interested in the price of building, and it may W useful to endeavour to trace some of the causes of the difficulty .which all are experiencing in getting „homes..and.. , the^ enormous, if not exorbitant,. cost of ■ any sort of new erecti6n,,fit. for habitation. .'.

"There have been undoubtedly great rises in the price of materials owing to the ordinary law of supply and demand;" said a prominent architect to a Post reporter to-day. "Supplies are short and demands great, but the public is not satisfied that these rises are sufficient'to! account for. the .enormous-increases demanded by builders at the present time, and there is a general'feeling-that-pro-fiteering ia more or. less rampant in the"building trade. ' ',',.■'»,?.-, V";',"",'.. ".' .',""-', ' STATUS--OF--THE--BUILDEK-., -, "What is the status of the builder'at. present ?. ,YeaiKs- : agQ, a. person-, wishing, tobuild, usually employed an architect to draw up the plans - and specifications, and these gentlemen obtained competitive tenders, each' mari putting in his price on a definite and uniform basia. This method, apparently, , worked well, but, in the minds of some, it was considered that the small percentage paid to the architect for his services - might bo saved, and the builder who objected to competitive prices' 1 was riot slow to.iiur press upon the would-be householder that he (being a perfectly hones)- man)' would give good value without bemg supervised,' and that the monay paid to the architect might.is well be spent on som# tangible, improvement to the house.

CUTTING OUT THE,ARCHITECT.

"With the help of ..some, "youth, pro-! bably taught at the night class of tho Technical School, the - builder was ablo to show a drawing which would meat the Corporation acquirements, and the architect woiild in many cases" be elimin--ated. Naturally the profits of these non-competing builders would be just about as high as they dare make them, and by degrees the prospective house owner, comparing the price submitted by builder Jones with the cost of his neighbour's' : house built' by builder Robinson, would be satisfied' that" he was haying a fair deal. The net result of this practice alone has been to raise the cost of houses without increasing their efficiency, and has also, had the effect of-making■' builders unwilling to work under the direction of architects when they can hope to find someone who will allow them to be the interpreter. of their own contracts. ..-..• "go-slow, labour:::;. ; ,;::;■; "Another cause of ' the' high price of building is the disinclination of the workman to in any way extend. himself. This is largely owing to the unior policy of having an uniform wage and'riot allowing piece-work. Where originally in a .certain time a man would fix a given number of feet of weatherboarding and would be valued and paid .in ..accordance-with, the amount of work lie did, the same man will probably-now. be-doing'a little over half simply, because he..-has seen that his fellow .workman who was,'.'going slow" received as much- for Ilia services as the industrious man did for his. This undisputitble fact of the' reduced production in a given time extends through.all the building trades and has consequently increased the labour bill'to a-higher "extent than the very large . increase in wages would -warrant-.- ■-■ — --■ 'minor details; : ' „.:;.: "The by-laws have 'to a' certain; extent increased the cost of houses, as ..the, requirements -regarding. drainage and other matters are more than they used to be, but on tho whole" we may"take" it; that' the public hau value fpr the money spent in ,this direction. There are some anomalies with regard to sizes of timbers that might with'advantage'*> the public be removed, but the saving thus affected would not be great. MOST PERNICIOUS OF ALL. ■ "Perhaps the moat pernicious system that is tending to the high cost of building i 3 that of the builder ceasing to be the contractor, but receiving a commission of 10 pei .cent, on. the; cost of the work carried out by him. 'In this system, there i 6 no competition in^the matter of prices of labour and materials ; the more the builder spends and the more expensive his methods are the more pay he gets. If he gets out his work badfy, and it has to be pulled down and rebuilt, he gets rewarded, instead of being punished, for Ms carelessness! He has no inducement to buy in a cheap market, for the more the article costs thi more he gets. His anxiety is to push the vvork through quickly,'so he offers higher wages than those current to entice workmen from the other builders, and the higher the wages he pays the more,he.gets.., , This system is'a'great factor in the-constantly increased cost of building, for it does away witb competition,' Arid, 'after all, competition is the only way of preventing exploiting and-monopoly.- • ■ , • ■ --■ • BETTER TKANSP.OKT. "Mentioning monopolies," said the architect, "naturally leads up to chipping and freights, and the Union Shipping Company. All three are causes in fflie raising of the prices- of building. With better means of carriage, goods that are cheap In one part could be transferred to another where there is an increased demand ior them, -and so stine 'materials-would be reduced in'price. THOSE PIiUMBEBS!' "The plumbers have formed , a close union and, with the.help of an Act of Parliament, are able to check competition with workmen (quit© competent men most likely, but not: classed as master plumbers), and, having agreed among themselves-*to, a'scale-'of charges, 1 have raised the cost of plumbing considerably in advance of what the writer thinks is warranted by the increased cost of material and workmanship. HOUSES—POOR PROPEBTY. "These are. some of the reasons why houses are deal', but the scarcity ifl, of course) partly due to the. legislation which declared that the house owner should be satisfied with the minimum in* terest on/his outlay, While other channels for investment were left open, in which the .would-be investor could get the maximum for his money. Houses are now poor form of property to hold. If tenanted, they, are difficult to sell, as the purchaser may not be allowed possession; if empty, agreat lobs and.'responsibility^ These facts being generally recognised, it would appear that if people who cannot afford to own their houses, are to be housed, it will have to be done by the State or by local authorities and not by the individual, as it has been in !!■-■ past. NO SOLUTION IN CONCRETE. "The man who says ho has solved the house question because he thinks he has found a new aggregate for concrete (probably one that has been, known to •practical men as long-as concrete- itself has beerf.known), or who sees his way, if he cart get hundreds of houses built on the same design, to save something hi the boxing, another fact which has b«an apparent to concrete axnert* from

the earliest time, offers no real help to his fellows, simply, because his .saving afrthe most could amount to very little, and that saving he would want for himself, and it would'not go to the public. .We simply want less waste of time and middlemen's profits in the production of the materials that'go to make a building, and more industry and fair dealing on the part of those ivho work the materials," and keener competition between ;the masters who employ the workman, so that profiteering can be wiped out. " WHY NOT BUILD IN GROUPS ?"

"If encouragement was given to the building of groups .of houses and the aggregation into fairrsized plots (common to al'J of the spaces now between 'buildings a considerable saving in the cost of sites'.could be, effected. . From a health point'of view it would be. better to have the air space behind or in front of the buildings rather ..than at the sides. ' Windows drawing the light and air from three or four feet wide damp, draughty, and dark passages are nothing like as effective as they would ■be if they faced'the wider space in front-or in the rear of the buildings. A minimum frontage in a bylaw is probably ultra vires, but,' whether it is or not- is of questionable good in: preventing overcrowding, and certainly adds to the' cost of building and to tha» extension -and consequent expense of reading. and its upkeep. It must no£ be taken that the architect is in? favour of small allotments^ for he believes ml a large average air.spabo to each house, but he feels that the present Wellington condition? mean waste ■of spaca Without effectiveness. As a fire-guard, he would insist upon thick brick or concrete walls between buildings, and uninterrupted access to ;both back and front of all houses."