WIDE DISPARITY IN PRICES

Northern Advocate, 25 June 1937, Page 7

WIDE DISPARITY IN PRICES

Tenders For Erection Of State Houses {Per Press Association - Copyright J WELLINGTON, This Day. Tenders for the erection of 76 houses under the Government’s housing scheme closed recently, and yesterday the Parliamentary Under-Secretary-in-Charge of Housing, Mr J. A. Lee, drew attention to the disparity in prices submitted by builders in different parts of New Zealand. .He said that if tenants were not to pay extravagant rents during the lifetime of their houses, the Government might be forced to take other steps than placing the reliance on local builders alone for the erection of houses. A Comparison. For comparison purposes , Mr Lee stated that one particular design of house had been included in contracts in Lower Hutt, Hastings, Invercargill and Gisborne. “This house is of five rooms, its floor area being 1,023 square feet,” said Mr Lee. “The following are the lowest tenders received for this particular design in the four centres mentioned above, the figures excluding any allowance for fences or footpaths.—Lower Hutt, £1,017 7/-; Hastings, £lll2 7/11; Invercargill, £l,OlB 10/4; Gisborne, £1,388 13/9. “The importance of these figures will be realised, when it is pointed out that a difference in cost of £SO is equivalent to at least 1/- a week for the rent which should be charged.” Will Not Pay Exhorbitant Price.

Mr Lee said it would seem that the Government was not paying a price in excess of .£ 1 a square foot for the house in question ,and it certainly had no intention of paying exhorbitant prices tendered in some of the towns mentioned. The Government had no intention of paying exhorbitant prices for houses and pointed out that, for some contracts, a price of 18/- and a fraction a foot had been received, against the Gisborne tender of close bn 30/-.