The Post-War Housing Shortage
Sometimes described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the national effort to address a very troubling problem has over the years come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and building. There was also a notable increase in house ownership, achieved in many cases through dogged individual effort and years of sacrifice.
Changing social conditions offered new opportunities, but also reduced the choices. Emphasis in government housing plans was at first on rental accommodation; later there was a swing toward the sale of affordable dwellings. At a time when various factors had reduced the availability of rental dwellings, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-ops were offering more opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was paralleled by a rise in construction input costs.
High on the list of factors linked to rising building costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour 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 occurrence during this period. A shortage of skilled workers also meant lower quality work and a blow out in construction 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 rates to ensure a reasonable output.
Unexpected costs could arise 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 across the border was sometimes contracted at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices hardwood flooring material had, by 1948, doubled in price. Cement had risen by almost 20 per cent and clay roofing tiles by more than 25 per cent. A gallon of quality paint costing around 30s ($3) in 1939 had risen at least 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 cost-cutting.
The economical floor plan was essential; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and wide open porches were deleted, reducing the shade at the front of the house to a minimum area. Ceiling heights had been slowly reduced from the turn of the century and were now typically 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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