HOUSE SHORTAGE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 274, 13 August 1921, Page 7

HOUSE SHORTAGE

DIFFICULTY AS ACUTE AS EVER

OPINION OF PROPERTY OWNER LAW BLAMED FOR STOPPAGE OF SPECULATIVE BUILDING Some inquiries were set afoot yesterday to ascertain whether the shortage of houses in Wellington was still acute, in view of the change in respect to economic conditions. One agent informed a Dominion reporter that he thought that the shortage of small houses —three, four, and five-roomed residences—was as acute as ever, and gave as an instance a case he had handled this week. It was a fourroomed cottage in Ilin toil 1 Street, Newtown, which was about to become available for lotting owing to the tenant’s departure for Australia. The . departing tenant wished to sell the furniture as it stood in the house, and made that a condition of his early departure, so it was decided to let the place subject to the incoming tenant taking, over the furniture for .£6O. “On such conditions, said the agent, “the place was advertised, and yesterday I received im fewer than 180 letters from people pr®ired to take the cottage (at -£1 per iffck) and agreeing to buy ;the furniture.’/ Indeed, there were several applicants who wished to offer a premium on the furniture in order to secure the cottage. That seemed to indicate that there was still a very lively demand for small places. Many of the applicants for houses were immigrants recently out from the Old Country, who were finding the task of securing a roof as difficult here as it had been at Home in recent years. It showed at least' that 180 people, mostly married folk with families, were hard grossed for houses.” Quest ioned as to the cause of .the shortage, the agent said that the Minister himself let the light in the other day when he stated that the housing legislation had .prevented the speculative builder operating. “If you deduct the houses the Government has erected at Miramar and the ones the City Council lias built at Northland,” he said, I make bold to say that the number of houses erected for renting in Wellington during the last two years had been smaller than for twenty years nast And that was not duo to the financial slump —it was due to the Government having succeeded thoroughly in making it worth no builder’s while to build for renting purposes. "I have myself twenty good sections fairly handy to town, and would be only too glad to’ build on them, but I shall certainly do nothing of the kind as long as the present legislation is in force — and I could build cheaper and faster than either the Government or the City Council. Look at the price the City Council finds it has to charge for a fiveToomed house away up on the heights of How- many people can afford to pay that for a house, and live decently at the same time? It means, then, that the council is using the money of the citizens to build houses for a certain class of people. That is what it really amounts to, though I believe the council thinks it is doing as well as it can.

"Not only is the Government preventing the speculative builder from operating as lie used to do, but it is making it very, hard for those who liavq property to let. and so is sickening most people of ■ the thought of house-building as a means of investment. That attitude is important; because it bears upon the other. If people hear on every hand of the difficulties of property-owners in making ends meet, they are not going to encourage others to build. It frightens people off the thought of building for themselves, and so adds to the army pf people who wish to rent only. “As an illustration of what is happening, I will quote a case which occurred recently in Wellington, and which I vouch for as true in every detail. A man had a house —an eight-roomed house —in. Kelburn, for which he was getting 235. 6d. per week only. He raised the rent to J 22 2s. and then lowered his demand to 325. 6d. The tenant went to the Labour Department, and the Department informed the owner that he was only entitled to 2.35. 6d. per week. The case went before the Magistrate, who awarded the owner 30s. But though the owner won the case, inasmuch as he was given a 6s. 6d. per week rise in rent, yet he could not get costs against the Labour Department. The irony of the case, however, is. that there is a JiIOOO mortgage at 7 per cent, on the property. Even at 30s. a week, the interest on the mortgage, plus rates, taxes, and insurance, is. not covered by the rent, so that not only is the owner losing on the property, but he is helping in a way to keep the other man —the tenant. Such cases are not unusual, but somehow or other people do not like going to Court over rent matters, as the public is apt to gain the impression that they are grasping more than they should, f "To my mind, the law is in error, for the simple reason that it is creating what it seeks to prevent—a house shortage—and it is nob based on British equity and justice, as instance the case I have quoted.”