Sometimes described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the national effort to address a very troubling problem has in time come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and activity. There was also a marked increase in house ownership, achieved in many cases through heroic individual effort and years of sacrifice.
Changing social conditions offered new opportunities, but also reduced the options. Emphasis in government housing schemes was at first on rental dwellings; later there was a swing toward the ownership of affordable housing. At a time when various factors had reduced the availability of rental dwellings, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-operatives were offering a wider range of opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was paralleled by a jump in building input costs.
High on the list of factors linked to rising construction costs were the passing of legislation for the 40-hour working week, and marked increases in the cost of construction materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unqualified building worker a higher salary than a tradesman had received in early 1946.
To keep both labourer and tradesman productively employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare thing in those times. Lack of skilled workers also meant poor quality work and further loss of time.
Contract prices were loaded with an increasing profit margin as an insurance against unseen problems. Under commonwealth price control, builders were entitled to a 10 per cent `profit’ on the contract price. Above award payments were not recognised in price control and yet builders often found a need to pay above award salaries to ensure building completion.
Unexpected costs could happen when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly unprocurable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported Baltic flooring material.
With local cement taking forever to turn up, a batch from interstate was sometimes bought at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices hardwood flooring material had, by 1948, doubled in value. Cement had risen by almost 20 per cent and terracotta roofing tiles by more than 25 per cent. A gallon of first-grade paint costing around 30s ($3) in 1939 had risen some 40 per cent by 1948.
When added to rising costs and shortages of materials the government restrictions, limiting the area of a new house to 12 squares (111.48 square metres) for a timber house and 1250 square feet (116.12 square metres) for one in brick, completed the recipe for an imposed economy.
The economical plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and spacious porches disappeared, reducing the shelter at the front of the house to a minimum area. Ceiling heights had been gradually reduced from the turn of the century and were now usually nine feet (2745 mm). Until the government construction restrictions were lifted in 1952 the acceptance of no-nonsense functionalism was as much a mandated state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.
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