BUILDING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16895, 27 November 1925, Page 3

BUILDING IN NEW ZEALAND.

ANNUAL OUTLAY OVER. £9,000,(XX). HOUSING FALLS BEHIND, (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. Building permits issued for the official year ended March 51 last show that building operations had been planned involving an expenditure of £9,304,160. Of this slim £4,916,000 was spent in building dwellings, and it is the opinion of the Government Statistician that in proportion to the demands of a growing population the programme of last vealdid not keep pace with requirements. Tt is officially stated that in the previous year the building of private dwellings provided a surplus, on the net gain in population, of 2039 houses, bub last year’s total in relation to the gain in population represented a housing deficit of 398. How these figures are ascertained is explained. The increase in population in the cities, boroughs, and town districts covered by the statistics was 25,000. The average number of persons per inhabited house in 1921 was 4.27, so that on this basis 5855 dwellings wore needed to house the. increase of population. Actually the permits issued fell short of this total, when allowance is made for destruction of old dwellings by fire to the extent of 389. BUILDING MATERIALS. Wood continues to be thy predominant building material. 4618 dwellings being built of it, compared with 575 in other materials. Wooden houses were, compared with the previous year, fewer in number and less in cost, their average cost being £BO4. New buildings in brick or concrete showed a gain in numbers, but a decrease in total cost. The average cost for this class of dwelling was £847. When business premises arc considered, moro permanent materials easily predominate. The now premises in "Wood numbered 250, value £227:094, but the buildings in other materials, 602 in number, cost £1,472,177, of an average value of £2069, a figure which shows an increase. PROVINCIAL PROGRESS. The Statistician points out that although Auckland city is not the largest municipality in point of population (its many suburbs are outside the city boundary) it is first in value of building operations. Several of the boroughs suburban to Auckland ai‘o well up the list. Wellington occupies second place, Christchurch next, and Dunedin close to it. The building permits issued in cipics, boroughs, and town districts in the provinces during the year were as follow's:— Value £ Auckland 3,706,668 Hawke's Bay ... 405,161 Taranaki 370,026 Wellington 2,127,877 Marlborough ... 52,958 Nelson 110,404 Westland 73,500 Ganterlnirv 1,221,394 Otago * '933,607 Southland 302,665 ’Total £9,304,160 North Island: New dwellings 4117, business premises 633. South Island: Dwellings 1688, business premises 274.