HOUSING ANOMALY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 33, 8 August 1921, Page 6

HOUSING ANOMALY

Uncertainty as to the trend of Costs and values, as well as financial stringency, adversely affeotk the building of dwellings. Most people foresee a time when materials and labour, and perhaps land, will be* cheaper, and when houses built now at a high cost will fail to compete \vith houses (still to be built) at a lower cost. Mr. W. 11. Field, M.P., expresses .the aame thing wlien he says that " it is Useless to expect private enterprise to build houses for leasing," and that "the man who, under present cbnditions, builds a house, with the intention Of letting it, is an idiot." If the dost of house-building falls in the

expected ratio, there is no reason to believe that a house built in 1920 •will command in 1925 a rent equal to interest on the cost of construction. Of course, expectations of fall may" not be realised, but in the meanwhile * they are sufficient to handicap house-building. Reluctance to build on a falling market is one of the factors that tend to prolong house congestion and high rents. It is an anomalous fact, and an unfortunate one, that the fear of houses helps to preve.nt houses becoming cheap.