HOUSING ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1935, Page 16

HOUSING ABROAD

FRANCE'S PROBLEM

The Municipal Council of Paris admits that its pet policy of providing modern and sanitary dwellings for the overcrowded quarters east and south of Paris has not proved the financial success they anticipated, writes the Paris special correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald." From 35 to 40 per cent.: of the flats are hanging empty on hand, with disastrous effects on the municipal budget, while blocks built by' private' companies go off -as last as they can be .finished. The city seems to have paid higher prices for work, done for the municipality than the companies have succeeded in getting. : Thus- they reckon that each of the flats built for them in the f ar-f romfashionable 12th arrondissement, east of the capital, cost them £1536, and a sum total of about £10,000,000 has been swallowed up in the scheme, to which may be added rather more than twice as much put up by the Department of the Seine for the same purpose. There is no doubt the exceedingly, convenient and even handsome buildings of the city council would find tenants if they could let down their prices! and this course has been suggested, notwithstanding the loss entailed.

Interested naturally in families with children, the city housing scheme pro-

vides flats for workers of many categories, with several rooms, three, four, or five. In the new blocks a some-what-stereotyped aspect in sites mainly on the former fortifications, south and east of the city, the tenants have every modern contraption at their 'disposal, and new lines of motor-buses supplement the metro railway, Uniting up all quarters with the centre and with each other. The private companies, on the other hand, have evolved under a welcome diversity of aspect blocks of buildings for the celibates, now so numerous of both sexes, and their prices are reduced to a minimum. It may be reckoned that a single, spacious room, with small kitchen and all modern appliances, cannot be let for less than £36, and every additional room will figure at about £12 a year. This is considered the minimum at present building prices,, but the municipal blocks work out at a higher ratio of prices. Still, the present city council, though it started late in the campaign for giving decent housing for modest households, is doing admirable work with remarkable rapidity. Gradually, too, the slums are disappearing, and much picturesque dirt and decay have been swept away by municipal brooms.