DECREASE LIKELY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22583, 11 March 1948, Page 6

DECREASE LIKELY

BUILDING COSTS STABILISING TENDENCY LIMIT ON REHAB. LOANS (P.A.) WELLINGTON. March 10. "The rising building costs do not seem to have prevented a spectacular rise in the number of people owning their own homes." said the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr. C. F. Skinner, at Kaitaia last night. Census figures for the four main cities showed that the number occupied dwellings rose from 67,394 in 1936 to 92.379 in 1945. Average Loan £1424 The Minister said he had been attacked in many newspapers since making a statement in Auckland last month that a rehabilitation loan of £ISOO was barely sufficient to finance the building of a house today. That was true, but so far the average rehabilitation building loan approved was £1424, which was well within the loan limit.

This showed that throughout the Dominion as a whole most ex-service-men were able to meet at least their minimum housing requirements with rehabilitation assistance. Mr. Skinner claimed that the workers' purchasing power, at least in relation lo building, had more than kept pace with rising costs. It was not particularly profitable to compare today's building costs with those of earlier periods. The wages of those engaged in the building industry, including workers producing building materials, had risen to reasonable levels, but that had been only one factor in raising costs. Rising Living Standard

One of the biggest factors was the steadily rising standard of living that people had a right lo expect. Fittings and amenities, taken for granted in a modern house, were not dreamt of, if obtainable, in the past. An important factor at present was also the great excess of demand over supply. He was confident that as supply overtook demand, which it would steadily do, and when builders found contracts a little harder to obtain, costs would find themselves on the downward path again. They would never again reach the levels of, say a generation ago, but would certainly fall below today's peak. Already, said the Minister, he had seen contracts come in recently at under 30s per square foot. The stabilising tendency would be assisted by maintaining rehabilitation building loans at the present figure.