HOME-OWNING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4961, 12 April 1926, Page 3

HOME-OWNING.

DOMINION’S ADVANCED POSITION,

RENT-PAYERS UNDER TWO-FIFTHS

According to standard authorities, it has beeen estimated that in New York city as much as. two-thirds of the population are without a,ny registered property. Only a negligible, few wage-earners in New York city own their own homes. How far-removed from this state of affairs New Zealand is may be judged by a few statisttical facte printed below. In New Zealand there are 127,058 households, the head of which is a wage-earner or salary earner. Concerning a small proportion, of these (4213) information as to the tenure of their property is not available, but an analysis of the balance (125,316) is quite sufficient to indicate, the extent or degree of home-owning. The tenures Of thse 125,316 households include a, certain number of (1) unencumbered freeholds, (2), . freeholds subject .to mortgage, (3) properties in process of being acquired by the occupier on time-payment. The number of w'agei-e'arners, or sal-ary-earners who own their own homes, without even a mortgage thereon, is. far from being negligible. In New Zealand 16,1'56 of them arc in this position, or 12.892 per cent. In the time-payment division (homepurchase ’on the instalment plan) there are 12,135, or 9.684 per cent. These people were in procss of completing the purchase of their dwelling at the time of the last statistical investigation.

A still greater number; 29,407, or 23.466 per cent;, appear in the free-hold-subject-to-mortgage section. At first glance it might! be thought that a person holding a (freehold title subject to mortgage is nearer .to being the owner than a person who is purchasing on the instalment plan. But in practice it i«s: found that such an assumption may be unsafe, because, in. very many- cases of mortgage thereis nothing to indicate the extent of the owner’s interest. As the Government Statistician remarks, “some 29,407 were cases of mortgaged dwellings, but it is i.mpoasiible to state the precise significance of this class. Owing to the dearth of houses many were 'forced to purch.as|e, frequently paying a small deposit and giving a mortgage or mortgages for the balance of'the purchase money. Ajs: it is well known .thE(t, either from disinclination or inability to act otherwise, there was often no intention to do other than substitute for rent the payment of interest on mortgage, it is hardly possible, to quote this species of ownership in the same claiss as that designated ‘time-pay-ment.’ ”