Business Podcasting Blog

Sometimes described in the post-war years as `the housing shortage’, the national effort to fix a very troubling issue has over the years 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 dogged individual effort and years of sacrifice.

Changing social attitudes offered new opportunities, but also reduced the options. Emphasis in state housing social engineering was at first on rental dwellings; later there was a swing toward the sale of affordable housing. At a time when various factors had reduced the availability of rental homes, 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 input costs.

Top on the list of factors linked to rising building costs were the passing of legislation for the 40-hour week, and steep increases in the cost of building materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unqualified building worker a higher wage than a tradie 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 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 house completion.

Unexpected costs could arise when, for example, timber flooring was suddenly unobtainable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported Baltic 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 material had, by 1948, doubled in price. Cement had risen by almost 20 per cent and terracotta 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 1200 square feet (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 plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and spacious porches were deleted, reducing the shelter at the front entrance to the absolute minimum. Ceiling heights had been slowly 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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