HOUSING COSTS PUSH UP RENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22664, 15 June 1948, Page 6

HOUSING COSTS PUSH UP RENTS

. MELBOURNE, May 10. j rns is why Housing Commission rents are up to 42s and 45s a week: Forty-hour week costs have increased V?GT nce of small timber houses to a square—nearly double the prewar cost of brick houses. Brick units of just under 11 squares are costing the Commission up to £146 a souare, or about £l6lO for each dwelling. Brick veneer dwellings are costing onlv £6 a square less than solid brick. Flats recently completed by the commission at North Melbourne cost more than £IBOO a unit, and those nearing completion at Ascot will be just as expensive. All these costs exclude land, roadmaking. and sewerage. Architects’ fees and administration add another 3 per cent. Total value of work under construction by the commission at December 31 last was nearly £3,500,000. As rent rebates are granted to tenants to bring homes within reach of their inr-omes. more of the mounting costs will have to be carried by the Commonwealth (and ultimately by the taxpayer), under the CommonwealthState Housing Agreement.