BUILDING FIGURES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 14

BUILDING FIGURES

TOTAL FOR YEAR

OVER £700,000

ERECTION OF HOMES

It seems as though there will be a falling off in the city building figures for December. This is not usually a big month in city building,. but the figures rose from £24,460 in 1933. to £28,649 in 1934. Anticipated improved conditions, or the prospect of more money in circulation, raised the figure to £33,449 for December last year.

So far the indications for December, 1936, are that the building values for the month will not exceed £26,000. In view of the great activity recently in the erection of business premises, the drop-may perhaps be traced to a cessation of activity on the part of private home builders in view of the programme of State activities in this direction

If the trend of building figures for this month is approximately correctly estimated above, the 1936 total will be £789,219, compared Fith £647,155 for 1935. ,

As the March figures this year were £108,609, including the central fire station (£49,877), and those for April, £128,673, including the Hotel Waterloo (£72,000), and as there has been great activity in remodelling business premises and reconditioning old-dwell-ings,- the extent of home building by private operators cannot have been large during the closing months of the year, A contributing factor has been the withdrawal of the Government subsidy which encouraged a temporary boom in building.

There is an increasing trend towards the erection of flats? as a method of solving the city's housing problem, and the aggregate value of twelve of the largest authorised during the year was nearly. £60,000. '