50,000 HOMES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 35, 11 February 1944, Page 6

50,000 HOMES

AUSTRALIAN SCHEME Sydney, Jan. 28. Expenditure of £50,000,000, to be raised through the Loan Council, during the first year after the war to construct 50,000 houses, is proposed in a report presented to the Premiers' Conference this week by the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction, Mr. Chifley. The.rent would be approximately £1 5s a week for a homo in the £B5O-£950 class, rising to £1 10s for a £l2OO home. It is proposed to build 19,750 houses in New South Wales, 13,467 in Victoria, 7267 in Queensland, 4250 in South Australia, 3350 in West Australia, 1750 in Tasmania, 100 in the A.C.T. and 66 in the Northern Territory. Of New- South Wales’ 19,750 houses, 11.850 would be built by the State Government, as the Commonwealth's delegate, and 7900 by cooperative home purchasing societies. The houses will be fitted with gas or electric stoves, gas or fuel copper, adequate kitchen and linen storage .facilities and possibly hot, water and refrigeration, which two, it is estimated, on a mass production basis,, could b? installed for £5O. Estimated building cost is £B5O for a two-bedroom house in timber, or £950 for brick, and £lOOO and £l2OO for a three-bedroom house in timber or brick. It is estimated that Australia will have to build 300,000 houses after the war to overtake the present desperate shortage, and to rebuild the slums of Sydney and Melbourne.