HOUSE BUYING CRIPPLED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16452, 14 June 1921, Page 8

HOUSE BUYING CRIPPLED.

RESULT OF DEAR MONEY. MORE HOUSES TO LET. Seven. per cent for loans on first mortgage and ten per cent for second mortgage were the ruling rates in the city to-day. The tightness of money even at these rates, has given a great set-back to the buying and selling of , houses. Those who have the money, | find better channels for investment and • those who lack ready money are ap- I palled at the cost -of borrowing. Tho letturg of houses, therefore, is becoming much more popular, and although there ure not many houses on the market to let, owing to the acute shortage, letting must become more genoral. House agents say that although there are more houses to let at present than there have been for some time past, the. property market has picked up a good bit in the last couple of weeks, and numerous sales are. reported. One agent stated to-day that a number of people wiltf .£3OO or £4OO seemed to have come suddenly on the market, and ho thought that they had been holding their money up on account of the panic. Heavv financial burdens have been undertaken by many men in moderate situations. Instances of the kind were given by a land agent who expressed tho belief that many men, in purchasing houses, had undertaken far more than they could bear, and that the end raust come in time, and the houses be re-sold at a hoaw loss. Meanwhile there are several factors that are retarding building and tending thereby to maintain the shortage and keep prices up. One factor is the cessation of speculative building due to uncertainty as to the price of timber. There is a downward tendency juafc now, resulting from heavy importations (or the threat of heavy importations) of Oregon. Timber and labour are tho two important things. When wages are reduced tho price of houses will drop for more reasons than one. Tho guild system of building, if adopted by the City Council, should afford an object lesson as to the cost of. producing houses. Councillor E. M’Combs has tabled a motion in the City Council to borrow a further sum of £lO 000 from the Government and allow the labour unions to. go ahead with the construction of houses on the guild system, which is claimed to get down to bedrock costs.