The Post-War Housing Shortage
The 1940′s Housing Boom}
Sometimes described in the post-war years as `the housing shortage’, the nationwide effort to fix a very serious issue 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 attitudes offered new opportunities, but also reduced the choices. Emphasis in state housing schemes was at first on rental accommodation; later there was a swing toward the ownership of affordable housing. At a time when various influencers had reduced the availability of rental houses, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-operatives were offering greater opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a jump in building costs.
Top on the list of factors linked to rising costs were the passing of legislation for the 40-hour working week, and steep increases in the cost of construction materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unskilled building labourer a higher salary than a tradesman had received in early 1946.
To keep both labourer and tradie rationally employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare occurrence during this period. A shortage of skilled workers also meant poor quality work and a blow out in construction time.
Contract prices were loaded with an increasing profit margin as an insurance against unseen contingencies. 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 rates to ensure a reasonable output.
Unexpected costs could arise when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly unobtainable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported flooring material.
With local cement taking forever to turn up, a truckload from across the border was sometimes bought at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber flooring had, by 1948, increased 100 per cent in price. 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 by 40 per cent by 1948.
When added to rising costs and shortages of materials the government restrictions, limiting the area of a new home 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 floor plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and spacious porches were deleted, reducing the shade at the front entrance to the absolute minimum. 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 an imposed state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.
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