BUILDING "BOOM"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22607, 26 June 1935, Page 8

BUILDING "BOOM"

IN NEW SOUTH WALES WORKERS' HOUSING SHORTAGE (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 20. Following the period of restricted building activity since 1930, when tho value of new dwellings and commercial buildings dropped from more than £13,000,000 to £4,000,000 a year, real estate and building experts forecast an acute housing shortage in city and country municipalities throughout New South Wales. A " boom " in building has been in progress during the last 12 months or so. In the central city area alone buildings worth £2,000,000 are being erected or planned. The Rural Bank's home-building scheme has alone been responsible for more than 2000 families going into home-ownership. Hundreds of other homes are being built in Sydney suburbs. Another striking feature is the number of new huge flat buildings that are being built for investors. Calculated on average figures for the last 18 years, it is estimated that a building programme of £30,000.000 during the next two years will be necessary to maintain average progress and make up the leeway caused by the depression. A warning is being sounded by experts that no provision is being made for the working man in the current building programme. Builders point out that the greatest part of the £9,000,000 spent in building in this State since the beginning of last year has gone to erect now commercial houses, flats and expensive homes. This nmount equals the combined totals for the three preceding years, when the number of new workingclass homes erected was almost negligible.

Despite an increase of more than 200 per cent, in the State's building last year, real-estate agents in industrial areas report that the demand for cheap rentals far exceeds the supply. The speculative builder, who provided the majc-ity of workers' cottages in the past, has found such dwellings a comparatively poor investment, it is claimed, and is turning his attention to the erection of bettor class homes, flats and cottages for immediate sale. In the closely settled areas of Sydney and Newcastle, more money than since the building slump of 1930 is being spent, but the shortage of low-rental homes becomes more pronounced each month.

Those in touch with the position are convinced that Government intervention or the erection of " workers' flats," as in Britain and on the Continent, will become necessary within a short time unless speculative builders return to the cheaper type of dwelling in prefer ence to the more profitable business of building flats, rentals for which usually exceed the means of a man on the basic wage.