Often described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the nationwide effort to address a very troubling issue has over the years 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 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 state 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 cut the availability of rental accommodation, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-ops were offering greater opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a jump in construction input costs.
Top on the list of factors linked to rising building costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour working week, and drastic increases in the cost of building materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unskilled building worker a higher wage than a tradesperson 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 event in those times. A shortage of skilled workers also meant lower quality construction and further loss of 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 wages to ensure building completion.
Unexpected costs could happen when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly unobtainable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported Baltic timber for flooring.
With locally made cement taking forever to turn up, a truckload from interstate was sometimes contracted at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber flooring 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 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 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 austerity.
The economical 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 entrance 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 a mandated state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.
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