DOUSE SHORTAGE BAD FOR WHANGAREI

Northern Advocate, 25 March 1937, Page 8

DOUSE SHORTAGE BAD FOR WHANGAREI

Many, Who Would Settle, Pass On, Says Agent This week an advertisement appeared in the “Northern Advocate,” offering £1 reward “for information resulting in my renting a house or flat to my requirements.” Whangarei is losing population because of a shortage of houses. Would-be tenants are queueing up when there is a hint of a house becoming vacant. Several occupiers, who have received notice that the landlords require the houses for their own occupation, are left stranded. On the sSrength of a rumour that they intended to leave the town well-known permanent residents of Whangarei received a call the other evening from total strangers, who sought first refusal. A public servant, on the last two days prior to his transfer from Whangarei, received 16 callers in two days, all bent on the same mission. Wives and families are being ''left with relations elsewhere, as no accommodation is available for them, apart from hotels and boardinghouses. . Letter Confirmed. A reporter, who inquired into the facts of the position this week, found confirmation for the sentiments expressed in a letter to the “Northern Advocate” signed “Public Servant” and published on Saturday. *The writer stated that he had been trans- j ferred here in the New Year to assist 1 in serving Whangarei, and that, ever since, he had been endeavouring fruitlessly to rent a house and so set up his own home. He. asked whether Whangarei could still be called a progressive town when unable to I house those sent to serve its citizens. The moving population, however, is by no means the only section affected by the acute housing shortage. Some tenants who have occupied houses over lengthy periods and have proved satisfactory in every way, have received notices to quit from owners who want houses for their own use. Those dispossessed, too, are at their wits’ end. “It is a bad thing for the town,” one agent said, when discussing the position. “Many have come here recently desiring to be good citizens, but, finding their accommodation wants cannot be filled, have moved on somewhere else. A couple came to my place at 9 o'clock last night, but I could do nothing, “A house agent is something like a 1 doctor these days—likely to be called at any hour. Satisfactory tenants also are being moved out of their houses, which causes them to have a grouch, and Whangarei is losing a number of them. Demand For All Sizes. “There is a demand for all siaes and shapes of houses,” this agent said. “Five-roomed bungalows are most in demand at rentals in the vicinity of £1 or 22/6. However, some of the homeless are becoming desperate and are offering up to £2. “There is an increasing number of retired people, drawing small incomes from superannuations or penj £ ions, who desire two or three rooms, j Their requirements are not being met. j Young couples are flying high and, in j setting up their establishments want to start ahead of where their grandparents finished.” Another agent, doing a great deal j of business, said that the shortage was j principally in four to five-roomed j J houses, preferably with garages. There j j was little demand for other kinds of j | houses. I j He estimated that the construe- j j tion of about 30 new homes would j | meet immediate requirements. j | “The present shortage is partly atj ttibutable to the fact that private per- j , j sons are afraid to build letting prop- ! | erty, not knowing what competition j j they will have to meet from the Gov- i j ernment building scheme,” he said. !