BUILDING SLUMP

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 12

BUILDING SLUMP

House Costs “Too High” (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, April 26. A depression has hit cottage builders in Dunedin. It has been coming for the last year, according to Mr A. J. Price, who, up to about two years ago, was one of the biggest cottage builders in the city. The reason, he says, is the cost of housing. Prices have risen so high that the average young person simply cannot afford to build a house. The prices, he said, were not the fault of the builder: the cost of the many materials involved, labour, and land were all cumulative. Indicative of the slump, Mr Price said, was the ease with which good timber could now be obtained. It took many years to get together enough timber to refloor the town hall, and now builders were being “chased” to buy first-class heart timber. Another indication was the availability of sub-contractors such as plumbers, electricians, and bricklayers, who were hard to locate until recently. Mr Price said the labour position was becoming easier -also. Discussions with other cottage builders showed they had little work in hand and little in sight. Builders of an earlier generation would buy a block of land, subdivide it, build on it and so develop housing areas. Nowadays, the high costs of land and subdivision had killed this private enterprise, they said.