STATE HOUSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 January 1941, Page 3

STATE HOUSES

A KEEN DEMAND. POSITION IN WELLINGTON AND AUCKLAND. ißy Telegraph—Press Association, t DUNEDIN. January 6. Up to December 13 last year 350 houses had been completed in Dunedin under the Government housing scheme and for the whole of Otago the number completed was 656. with 223 under construction, or a total of 879 according to a statement by the Minister of Housing. Mr. Armstrong. The Minister said the number of applications in Dunedin for these houses was not much greater than the number at present under construction. The position in Wellington and Auckland was vastly different as in both of those cities there had been a waiting list extending over the past three or four years. The total number of Government houses completed or under construction in New Zealand tip io December 13 last was 12,133. the greater proportion being in ho Auckland district, where 4000 were already occupied and about 2000 were under construction. The rents from these houses ranged from about 14s. a week for pensioners’ flats up to £2 a week for a few houses of an expensive nature. The Minister slated that Government was not constructing any more houses of an expensive nature as it was considered that persons who could afford to pay such a rent as £2 should be able to adopt other measures to secure homes. Mr. Armstrong said that in Auckland there was not the same difficulty in securing tradesmen for building houses as obtained in other centres and that in Wellington particularly the tradesmen available were engaged to a largo extent on the construction of commercial buildings.