BUILDING COSTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27273, 27 December 1949, Page 4

BUILDING COSTS

HIGH PRICE OF HOUSES SIXTY PER CENT. INCREASE SINCE 1942 The prospective house builder who has deferred plans for a new home will derive little comfort from a cost-of-building index published in this month’s issue of the official journal of the New Zealand Institute of Valuers. These figures, compiled by a qualified architect and valuer, Mr H. W. L. Bates, show that for a selected type of house the average construction costs, which have risen year by year, are more than 60 per cent, higher in 1949 than in 1942. A wooden house with a tiled roof and concrete foundations measuring 1000 square feet in area is Used' as the “ model,” the term recognised by valuers throughout the country for the purpose of obtaining uniformity in statistics. The area of the house is arrived at from the “ all-over ” dimensions of the wooden frame, the usual method adopted by valuers. As the basis of his index, Mr Bates takes the annual average cost per square foot in 1942 to equal 100. He shows that, whereas in 1942 it cost 24s per square foot to erect such a house, the figure in September of this year was 39s 4d. Some of the figures given in Mr Bates’ index are as follows:

There was a slight fall in costs in September, but it is considered too soon to interpret this as the beginning of a downward trend.

Annual Index cost figure Year s. d. 1921 .. 14 5 60.00 1928 .. 17 10 . 74.29 1932 .. 13 6 56.25 1935 .. 14 4 59.70 1939 .. 20 2 84,00 1942 .. 24 0 100.00 1943 .. 24 11 103.70 1944 .. 28 5 118.38 1945 .. 30 9 128.11 1946 .. 33 6 139.58 1947 .. 35 7 148.25 1948 .. 38 1 158.66 1949 (April) .. 39 6 164.58 1949 (August) .. 39 11 166.29 1949 (Sept.) .. 39 4 163.87