The Post-War Housing Shortage
Often 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’. Without a doubt it was a boom in demand and building. There was also a marked increase in home ownership, achieved in many cases through dogged individual effort and years of sacrifice.
Changing social attitudes offered new opportunities, but also reduced the options. Emphasis in government housing plans was at first on rental dwellings; later there was a swing toward the sale of budget dwellings. At a time when various influencers had reduced the amount of rental houses, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-ops were offering a wider range of opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a rise in construction costs.
Top on the list of factors linked to rising building costs were the passing of legislation for the 40-hour week, and drastic 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 productively employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare thing 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 circumstances. 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 building completion.
Unexpected costs could arise when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly out of stock, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported Baltic flooring.
With locally made cement taking forever to turn up, a delivery from interstate was sometimes contracted at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber flooring material had, by 1948, increased 100 per cent in value. 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 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 floor plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and generous porches disappeared, reducing the shelter at the front of the house 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 a mandated state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.
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