ARE HOUSES SCARCE ?

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1934, Page 6

ARE HOUSES SCARCE ?

(To the Editor.)

'.•Sir,—The Hon.' W. Pony, M.L.C., in his maiden speech in the Legislative Council, is reported as '.saying that "New Zealand was rapidly approaching, the stage when there would be an acute shortage of houses, owing to the big decrease in the number of new dwellings being erected.'-' I thought Mr. Perry had failed to check, this statement. I have. So far as Wellington and suburbs is concerned, there is no shortage, but on the contrary, a definite over-supply. My authority is the advertising columns of the "Evening Post" of June 7. This is the result:—Houses to let, 122; houses for sale, 56; flats and rooms to- let, 90. The advertisements do not tell all the story, but my figures, if anything, underestimate the amount of available dwelling accommodation in Wellington. No doubt there has been a heavy decrease in building and for two reasons: (1) Lack of finance; (2) sacrifice- of mortgagees and landlords by legislation. Mr. Perry suggested, according to the report, that it might be desirable for the Government to construct houses and let them, ov build houses out of borrowed money. But I doubt if Mr. Perry would have made such a proposal hnd he first consulted the Advances to Settlers Department.—l am, etc.,

RENTIER,