HOUSING MARKET

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 258, 30 July 1942, Page 3

HOUSING MARKET

Keen Demand In Wellington

“If I were given 30 houses or flats now, I could find tenants for them within two or three-hours,” said one Wellington land and estate agent, when an inquiry was made as to the state of the housing market.

“I am very much afraid this is going to be a chronic state of affairs,” he continued, “as there is now next to no private building taking place, and Government housing has come to an end for the time being as far as Wellington is concerned. With the restrictions placed on rents there is little or no inducement for people with capital to build houses.. In other times we had the speculative builder, who took a chance when the market was nothing like it is today to put up 10 or 20 houses, trusting to luck, as much as anything else, to get rid of them at a reasonable profit. That sort of thing has gone by the board. The speculative builder has been out-speculated by the Government in the suburbs, and that is the only ‘place there is any land left on which to build. "But there are other contributory causes for the house hunger,” he said. “There has been a big rush of people to settle in Wellington during the last two dr three years because/Of the expansion of Government: departments in the capital city. Many have been hard put to it. to secure a roof over their heads. Further still the Government has contributed toward the problem by,taking over houses and other buildings which formerly provided places of accommodation tor hundreds of people. Sydney Street was a case in point, where houses were taken over for conversion into offices, while several large' buildings which have served as hotels and boardinghouses have been converted into purposes other than public accommodation. “For some lime people, used to their own houses, turned their noses up at flats,” said the agent. “Now we could place an unlimited number of flats, if they were situated reasonably near the city, but the'y are simply not available.”