FLATS AS DOMICILES.

Shannon News, 27 March 1923, Page 4

FLATS AS DOMICILES.

DIMINISHING POPULARITY. AUCKLAND'S EXPERIENCE. The city and suburban flat, which has occupied such a prominent place in the domestic life of the community for so many years, appears to be now losing some of its popularity (states the Auckland "Herald"). It is a noticeable fact that an empty flat is by no means the rarity that it was two years ago. Many of the flat, dwellers of Auckland are stated to have decided to live in more spacious dwelling-places. Inquiries made in the city indicate that rents for flats have experienced a slight drop, and that it is not always a .simple matter to find tenants, who now have a wider selection to choose from. It is said to be increasingly apparent that people are disinclined to accept temporarily installed appointments to be found in a great many hastily-converted flats. It is possible for them now to change into newlyconstructed flats, occupying the interiors of former dwellinghouses-, at from weekly rentals of from £2 6/- to £3 15/-, and these in the precincts of the city area. The flats usually consist of two bedrooms, a sitting-room, a kitchenette., together with a private bath for each set of rooms, and may be described as good middle-class flats. The case of blocks in the more expensive area in the centre of the city is different, as there are always people w,ho occupy accommodation of this type. Yet even here, it is stated, the demand is not what it" used to be.

The small, though material, weakening in demand for flats is said to be largely due to the loosening of the bonds which in recent years held the house market in a tight grip. A considerable portion of the users of flats could not, in the war years at least, be regarded as voluntary occupants, and it is these people, deprived of a home of their own for so many years, who, slowly but surely, are drifting back to their former mode of living. The house hunters to.day are composed very largely of flat-users, inexorably bent on obtaining their former pendence and privacy.