ADELAIDE'S CHEAP HOMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 92, 20 April 1938, Page 8

ADELAIDE'S CHEAP HOMES

After reading the figures of homebuilding in Wellington, whether Government building or private building, it is astonishing to read in the Adelaide "Advertiser" that the Government (through a Housing Trust) is building individual homes in Adelaide suburbs at a cost of £450 each, and renting at 12s 6d a week each. They are brick homes (as the reproduced photographs show), and therefore should cost less in maintenance and annual charges than wooden homes cost. Each house is on a section with a frontage of 38 feet (only 2 feet less than sections sold by the Wellington City Council in" the suburbs) "and there is room for a garden both in the front and at the back." The "Advertiser" states:

The houses themselves are of brick, and consist of a living-room, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and a sleepout capable of holding two single beds easily. The bathroom,is fitted with a heater, shower, enamel bath, and basin. The kitchen has a tiled sink and a modern wood stove, and in a corner of the back porch is a copper and washing trough. Each house is also fitted with a tank, clothes posts and line, wire doors and window screens, electric light in all the rooms, and power points. All this at a cost of only £450 and rented for 12s 6d a week. Sir William Goodman, chief engineer and general manager of the Tramways Trust; who is also the enthusiastic chairman of the Housing Trust, has said that he has seen many fiats' in the city of Adelaide and suburbs for which £3 or more is being paid that are inferior to these houses. It Is impossible to doubt that he is right.

Fifty houses were occupied at the end of March, 68 more are expected to be occupied by the end of May, and it is anticipated that by the end of this year 274 such.garden homes will be occupied at Rosewater, Rosewater Gardens, and Croydon Park. The scheme is known in Adelaide as the Sjate Housing Scheme or the Housing Trust Scheme. It derives its borrowing powers from Parliament, and it is managed by experts headed by Sir William Goodman. There appears to be no politics in it whatever, but there is certaujly plenty of performance. 'The State Housing Scheme recognises an 'income-limit on the part of those who rent the homes, but does not tie them down to such an income-limit for all time:

All houses built under the Government scheme are intended only for families whose total income at the time of occupation does not exceed £4 10s a week. • It makes no difference to the terms of their occupancy if their income is subsequently increased. They will continue to pay no more and no less than 12s 6d a week for rent whatever their income is. A tenant can be obliged to leave his house only if he fails to pay his rent or fails to take proper care of the property. It is proposed to keep the houses permanently under the control of the Trust, so that at all times there shall be available a certain number of homes for families who cannot afford to pay more than 12s Cd a week for rent. One result, it is hoped, will be a stabilising effect on the rents of working homes generally in. the metropolitan area.

Last year the South Australian Parliament "gave the Housing Trust authority to borrow £125,000 at 3J]per cent, for the building of houses," and the 274 houses "will absorb almost the whole of the Trust's finances." As 700 applications have been received (426 more than the 274

houses provided for) it is anticipated that further borrowing will be authorised. And, at the cost per home, it seems to be money extraordinarily well invested. The reasons why the discrepancy between the published figures for house-building in Wellington and in Adelaide is so great may in part be guessed, but surely call for some official notice.