MORE BUILDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23092, 18 July 1938, Page 11

MORE BUILDING

INCREASE FOR YEAR THIRD HIGHEST TOTAL AUCKLAND IN THE LEAD LARGE NUMBER OF HOUSES Building operations in cities, boroughs and town districts, together with four counties and three road districts adjacent to the main centres, for the year ended March 31 last showed a marked increase over those for the previous year, the value, £10,291,613, showing an advance of £3,710,380, or 56 per cent, on the 1936-37 total, and of £6,647,925, or 182 per cent, on the 1934-35 figure. Auckland City, with a total of £1,483,485 for 1937-38, occupied tho leading position for towns, closely followed by Wellington City, with a total of £1,324,120. Other towns which exceeded the half-million for value of building operations were Christchurch, £943,819 j Dunedin, £817,006; and Lower Hutt borough, £623,233. Figures in Recent Years

Excluding counties and road districts, in order to obtain a comparison over a period of years, it is found that building operations in 1937-38 amounted to £9.909.225, which is tho third highest annual total to date. For the year 1921-22 the value was £5,283,012, with steadv increases shown for each year up to £10,169,530 in 1925-26, and £10,575,535 in 1926-27. From this date decreases, with the exception of 1929-30, wore recorded each year to 1932-33, the figure for that year, £2,341,690, being tho lowest noted. The year 1933-34 showed an increase, but there was a small decrease in 1934-35, with increases for each year since then. • New private dwellings for 1937-38 numbered 6043, as against 4555 during the previous year. These figures are inclusive of dwellings under the Stato housing scheme, for which the figures were 1890 units and 22 units for tho respective years. Excluding counties and road districts, the number of new dwellings for 1937-38 was 5568, and was tho highest recorded since. 1926-27, the total in that year being 6850. Marked Activity in May

Figures issued by the Government Statistician for May show the value of building permits issued in the larger centres was £846,856, this being the highest amount since July, 1929. The total value of permits issued for tho erection of dwellings, £500,731, was also a very high figure; in fact, the highest since September, 1926.

The actual number of permits issued for tho erection of dwellings was 537, a figure exceeded in March of this year, when 547 permits were issued. Under the Government housing scheme, the erection of 313 new dwellings was started in May, which total includes, however, 46 in areas outside of the larger centres.