COST OF HOUSES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1832, 28 May 1918, Page 1

COST OF HOUSES.

CONCRETE v. WOOD, A CAREFUL COMPARISON. A State officer, whose duties enable him to form accurate estimates about the costs of building and maintaining houses, gives his opinion emphatically in favour of concrete. Assuming normal times, he sets down £6OO as the cost of a fiveroomed. dwelling in wood and £675 for concrete. With administration at 5 per cent. (£3O for wood and £33 15s for concrete), and a section at £l2O in each case, the capital cost for the whole properties would be:—Wood, £750; concrete, £B2B 15s. - ANNUAL CHARGES. In the annual charges it is estimated that a rate of 6 per cent, (including 5 per cent, for interest) would pay off the principal in 361 years. Fire insurance on dwelling and furniture is reckoned at 11s per cent, for wood and 3s 4d for concrete. In In wood. concrete. £ s. d. £ s. d. Interest and sinking fund 45 0 049 14 6 Insurance, dwel 3 6 0 1 2 6 Insurance, dwelling 3 6 0 1 2 6 Insurance, furniture 1 2 0 0 6 8 Maintenance 4 0 0 1 10 0 Rates 4 0 0 4 0 0 Total 57 8 0 56 13 8 Per week 1 2 1 1 1 10 It is estimated that the depreciation would be 80 per cent, for wood and 50 per cent, for concrete in the period of 361 years. Therefore at the end of this term the estimated values of the properties would be Wood. Concrete, Section 120 120 Dwelling 320 337 10 £240 457 10