TOO MANY FLATS

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 2

TOO MANY FLATS

There is a tendency_ on the part of speculating builders in Sydney and Melbourne to-day to discard altogether the building of the small cottage, and to erect instead two and three-story flats. The question has now arisen whether this is being overdone. Many people believe that it is. ihc speculating builder argues that a block of twostory flats in the suburbs will provide housing accommodation for our families, and will yield at least £6 a week in rent, whereas a cottage occupying tho same amount of land will yield only from £1 10s to £3 a week m rent. But who do so many people rent a Hat.' 1 Only because they cannot get a suitable cottage in a convenient position. It is in most cases not because they favor flat life. The cottage builder does not now build to lot; ho builds to sell, and therefore tho man who cannot afford to buy a cottage must bo content with a flat. The average working man would prefer the cottage because he pays as much in rent for a flat as he would pay with a cottage. The better class of flats, at, say, Darlinghurst, teydney or St. Kilda road. Melbourne, where the rents are from £6 to £2O a week, are occupied by people who have no desire to live in a cottage. However, much is now being done by the Victorian and New South Wales Governments to provide for the needs ot tho working people who do not want to live in flats, and under the Government housing schemes very attractive cot tages are being made available to workers on very easy rental purchase plans. The increasing popularity oi these housing projects gives color to the suggestion that the building of small flats for speculative purposes will very sopn_. be overdone. —‘ New Zealand jPeobrator.*'