SUBURBAN BUILDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19838, 7 January 1928, Page 11

SUBURBAN BUILDING.

AN IMPRESSIVE BECOBD. YEAR'S TOTAL £1,159,899k ELEVEN HUNDRED NEW HOMES. MOUNT ALBERT HEADS LIST. 1 ,K r-; •., - The bringing together of all figures of building expenditure is the fourteen neat suburbs of Auckland during the year 1927 makes an impressive record of growth and development. The work goes on piecemeal at scattered points, and it is only when a comprehensive check is made of all! that has been done that the extent of the progress made can be fully realised.

Of the value of £2.-588,291 in building permits issued in the city and suburba during the past year a total of £1,159,899, or considerably less than half, was for the suburbs. As in previous years Mount Albert' stands first among them in it* building activities, and is followed next by One Tree Hill. Mount Eden, which recently occupied fifth place, now comes third, with Mount Roskill and Onehunga following in. that order. In all these the stated value of the buildings exceeded £IOO,OOO by a large margin. The following table shows the value of all permits issued, the number and value of permits for new dwellings:—

In the esse of New Lynn, fo? which the December figures were not available, the returns for that month have been estimated. Lower Average Value o! Houses.

These figures, large as they are, indicate some lessening of activity as compared with tfce busy year ti 1926. In the last win* months of that year there were issued in these 14 suburbs, 1114 permits for the erection of dwellings <4 the total value of £953,201. A comparison of these figures shows a distinct decrease in the average value of the houses erected, 61 more houses built in 1927 than in the nine months of 1926, involving an expenditure of £33,002 lass. The average in 1926 was £855, while last year it was only £733. The total value of all building permita in the iast nine months of 1926 waa £1,205,606, which is in excess of those issued for the whole of last year. In not a few of the suburbs the eveotion of large new shops and of garage* and motor-stations has had an important place in the building activities of the district. In Avondale there has been a new Oddfellows Lodge Hall built in brick and a Salvation Army Hall in wood has been begun. "At Devonport a new church and factory have been the most noteworthy new buildings, and Newmarket has had added to it three extensive business buildings. few Newmarket Houses. Newmarket holds the unique position among the suburbs of being the only one in which dwellings do not account for the greater part of the building activity. In many of the suburbs dwellings account for four-fifths of the total value, but Newmarket is already so closely settled that only seven permits for dwellings were issued during last year. Those represented only £7700, or about oneseventh of the total value of new buildings in the borough. The large buildings wecfasd by the Public Works Department at Penrose Junction for the electric-power service are not included in the Ellerslie Tow? Board's returns. A combined gar&£? ; picture theatre and shops has had a large part in swelling the figures from Northcote. Devonport has maintained its reputation of having among the most costly houses, the average there being not far; short of £IOOO. In Tamaki the average is almost as high. Birkenhead goes to the opposite extreme with an average of considerably less than £SOO a house.

Total Valu* value of of Dwelling dwell* n« permits. perraite. permit#. Mount Albert . £176,670 175J £144.291 One Tree Hill £144.828 134 £118.039 Mount Eden .» £ 132,677 107 £94,107 Mount Boskill . £129,000 130 £115.000 Onehunga £122,075 136 £103,593 Avondale . • £ 90,143 125 I 30,116 Takapuna .. £81,028 96 £69.471 Davonport ., New Lynn »• Newmarket .. £ 54,624 46 £44.059 £53,979 68 £42.228 £52,203 7 £7,700 Tamaki ,. £48,893 4H £43.404 Birkenhead ., £29.839 59 £25.856 Ellerslie £25,276 28 £21,795 Nortkcote .. £19,023 . 15 £10,540 Total £1,169,899 1175 £920,199