PROGRESS OF HOUSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18578, 10 December 1923, Page 11

PROGRESS OF HOUSING.

| OVER 5000 PERMITS IN YEAR. SHORTAGE REDUCED BY 1040. ; VALUE • TOTALS £4,396,000. ■ A report on building activities .in the cities, boroughs, and town districts \ during the year ended March , 31, 1923, has been issued by the Government . Statistician. He states that the increase in population during the year for the,area covered by these statistics was some 15,300. The average number-of persons per inhabited private dwelling in 1921 was 4.27, so that on this basis, ; 3584 houses were required to house the increase of population. . Actually the permits issued were 5025. Making an allowance probably on the generous side of 1 per cent, of these as not actually ■ built, although permits were obtained, and an allowance of 350 for houses destroyed by fire, demolished, etc., the net surplus of houses toward effecting a reduction in the housing shortage was some 1040. C • It is a curious commentary on the involved state of the housing question that by far the greater building-activity took place in the' North Island, whereas the greater relative increase of population was in the South. Statistics of private, 7 dwellings show that new buildings of wood numbered 4631, valued at £3,491,836, and of other materials, 394, valued at £468,677, a total of 5025, valued at £3,960,513. • During 1921-22, (the new dwellings numbered 4330, the value being estimated at £3,141,000. In addition, alterations and additions to existing dwellings were valued at' £435,620. as against £421,705 in the: previous year. The report states that there is observable a distinct allround improvement in building ' between the two years. The average value per dwelling was £725 in 1921-22, and £788 in 1922-23. The preference, for the wooden house is still maintained, 92 per cent,, of erections being, in that . material. The average value of wooden dwellings was £754, and that of dwellings- in other materials £1190.

New buildings, for business purposes numbered 942, valued at £1,455,038, as against 605, valued at £597,359 <v in the previous year. Additions and alterations were estimated at £364,006, as compared with £190,576 in 1921-22. There was an increase of over 50 per cent, in number and over 140 per cent, in value, while the average value of new buildings increased from £987 to" £1546. .. Other- buildings number 596, Valued at £708,888, as against 80, valued at £257,622 in the previous year.