HOUSE HUNGER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 258, 26 July 1920, Page 6

HOUSE HUNGER

♦ FORCING UP PROPERTY VALUES IS THE GOVERNMENT TO BLAME? A house and laud agent, who wns consulted on the point, Btnted last week 'Hiilt thVdomand for fivo and six-roomed houses close to tho city had probably never been keener in "the history of Wellington.' As t,hcro were none to be had for rents, nnd tho Government and municipal building schemes promised next to no relief, remarkablo prices were being paid for such houses, with sub*iantifil deposits on account, and often with the whole amount of the purchase money paid in cash. Only the- other day a man offered a £50 bonus to anyone who would secure him a decent sixToomed house convenient to the city, and '•ho.-was prepared to pay a good rent, v Many people with such houses would ''"'have' liked to benefit by tho offer; but could not do so, as they would be faced nith the problem of finding another place "'for themselves. Cases aro cropping up ■■•/ fcvery day, where people have been tempt--••■ed by. big prices to "sell out and get out," only to find that they have to ""i»y ; as-much, : if not a little more, to * "get another, roof over their heads. ,';..'.;" The whole position has been accentuated by the ill-considered rent restrictions imposed by Parliament, which should bo lifted now tho war bus been over nearly two years," said tho agent. "If that is not done, the position at this time next year will bo infinitely worse, for whilst the Government is keeping down a few wnts, it is forcing up the price—not the value—of houses to a highly ridiculous figure. 'Taney people paying .EIGOO and for six-roomed wooden houses' twentyfive years old! Yet such is 'being done. It takes about £\.W to Iraild a, fiveToomed cottage now, so if you allow for the . cost of tho land, the price mentioned is net abnormal. But the value is not there, all the same. The price has been raised because tho merchants have been given a clear run, whilst the little retailer is being sued for selling vaseline and cheap clocks at. a.little.over tho usual cost. 'Does tho public know that the timber merchants ■"raised the price of o.b. timber 3s. n hundred feet last week? Yet some of . the timber merchants in Wellington have had hundreds of thousands of feet weathering here for over a year past. The prices of many /things are being kept high by artificial means, just as the Government is forcing up the price of properties by enacting legislation,

; which 'prevents the speculator building houses to rent; As the Chief Justice has said, men ore not going to build houses for anyone so long as there ate such ridiculous restrictions. So it boila j down to the Government—to Pnrlia- ' ment—being very largely respons'We fur the house-hunger throughout New Zealand,, as they have stopped the man who has always in the past supplied the houses, and have substituted for his activities Government and municipal building schemes, all of which have been failures from a practical point of view. The forcing up of the value of city ,-houses may give the Government a little more by way of taxation/but It is going to take it ..cut of the hide of the man who can least afford it."