House Shortage Overtaken

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 8

House Shortage Overtaken

MANY DWELLINGS TO LET

Unique Position in Auckland

iPOE tlie first time since the war there are houses to let m I' Auckland. Agents arc finding that the supply ‘‘xeeec.s the demand—an unusual situation m a city which until this rear was the dread of house-hunters. People are looking for cheaper houses, and the bulk of the vacant dwellings are in the class for which moie than £2 per week is asked.

rpHE presence of spare houses suggests that Auckland’s size has at last grown adequate to its population —adequate and just a trifle more, but the balance will be adjusted by the swing of economic circumstances. A liome-building fever, which only slackened this year, added fresh houses daily. Mount Albert alone, where permits for dwellings broke all Dominion records, was an example of phenomenal advancement. It was a pace that could not have been maintained without another trade boom, and the inevitable slowing-up was a

factor in the adversity which has caused Auckland timber mills to work reduced time since the beginning of the winter. Hand in hand with the sudden appearance of many more “House to Let” signs than the eye was accustomed to,-the collapse of the housebuilding boom was a sign that for the time saturation point .had been reached. As an incidental, it plunged hundreds of carpenters into unemployment, and was responsible for the departure overseas of many competent tradesmen. Backing the results of private building enterprise, the Railway Department has had a hand in alleviating the house famine. It has erected 136 houses, of the cut-to-order variety, between Papakura and Henderson, and proposes to erect at least another hundred at Otahuhu, where workmen at the new car shops will soon have to be housed. Such projects have undoubtedly been a factor .in the solution of the housing problem. Property owners say, of course, that in the past it has not paid them to build houses to let. In spite of that there are now dozens of perfectly

good and well-appointed houses empty in Auckland. Building costs have undoubtedly" been high—a circumstance partly attributable to city regulations which demand a large proportion ot heart timber —and the landlords had to receive high rents if, taking rates as well as construction costs into consideration, they were to get a return on their money. On the other hand, many speculators found building for sale on easy terms a profitable enterprise. In many cases cheap materials were put into the jobs, but a veneer of bright paintwork and pretty wallpaper, attractive fittings and modern appointments—these generally satisfied clients content to allow time to discover the flaws in the buildings they were purchasing. The poor quality of much of the material in some of the recent cheap dwellings leads observers to hope lor the erection, in future, of more homes in brick or stone. Several propertyowners have experimented with brick, and have found the demand good, though the houses so constructed are necessarily- dearer than those built of timber. A fairly constant percentage of home-seekers. Including married couples satisfied to establish themselves at once, prefers to buy or build, rather than rent. In addition there is a great body' of people restricted, byvarious circumstances, to the necessity of renting their dwellings. A year or two ago these people had a bad time yvhen they came to Auckland. Houses were scarce, and rents were high. To-day' houses to let are plentiful, and under the sheer force of economic pressure, rents must fall. RENT RESTRICTIONS ACT The reduction of rents by the simple but inexorable forces of economic principles is probably' preferable to the forced reductions under the Rents Restriction Act, which goes out of existence at the end of the year. A reflection of existng conditions, witfl rents apparently lower, and fewer tenants dissatisfied, is the - fact that to-day the rents restriction, officer, working under the Labour Department, receives only- an occasional application for adjustment, whereas formerly he received a dozen or more a week. Land agents interviewed on the subject agreed that any number of “houses to let’' were available. “The shortage of houses has been overtaken—that is definite,” said one agent, “but there is still a persistent demand for comfortable homes of modern appearance.” On the contrary, the experience of another agent was that the cheaper houses were finding tenants readily, so long as they were moderately well appointed, - while people were not willing to go above £2 or £2 5s a week, a figure au which quite good homes could be secured in most localities. Frequently, house-owners now had to reduce rents to get tenants. There was also what he termed the “flat complex.” Many people, particularly married couples, would rather pay' more for an unfurnished flat in the city than a moderate rent for a comfortable dwelling in the suburbs.