STATE HOUSES

Grey River Argus, 8 January 1941, Page 10

STATE HOUSES

879 in Otago i DOMINION TOTAL 12,138. DUNEDIN, January 6. Up to December 13, 1940, a total of 350 houses had been completed in Dunedin under the Government housing shheme, and for the whole of Otago the number completed was 656, with 223 under construction, or a grand total of 879. The Minister for Health and Housing (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) states that the number of applications in Dunedin for these houses is not much greater than the number at present under construction. The position in Auckland and Wellington is vastly different, as in both these cities there has been a waiting list for the last three or four years. 1

The total number Of Government houses completed or tinder construction in New Zealand, tip to December 13 last, is 12,138, the treater proportion being in the Auckland district, where 4000 are already occupied, and about 2000 are undm construction Rents for these houses range from about 14s a week for pensioners’ flats up to £2 a week for a few houses of an expensive nature The Minister stated that the Government was not constructing any more houses of this expensive class, as it was considered! that persons who could afford to pay (such a rent as £2 a week should be aple to adopt other measures to securel a home. Mr Armstrong tjemarked that in Auckland there whs not the same difficulty in securing tradesmen for building houses as there was in other centres, and that (in Wellington particularly the tradesman available were engaged to al large extent on the construction of commercial buildings.