The 1940’s Housing Boom
Sometimes described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the nationwide effort to fix a very troubling 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 notable increase in home ownership, achieved in many cases through heroic individual effort and years of sacrifice.
Changing social attitudes offered new opportunities, but also reduced the options. Emphasis in government housing schemes was at first on rental accommodation; later there was a swing toward the ownership of low-cost houses. At a time when various factors had cut the availability of rental homes, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-operatives were offering a wider range of opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a jump in construction input costs.
High on the list of factors linked to rising construction costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour week, and steep increases in the cost of construction materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unskilled building labourer a higher wage than a tradie 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. Lack of skilled workers also meant poor quality work and further loss of 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 wages to ensure a reasonable output.
Unexpected costs could happen when, for example, timber flooring was suddenly out of stock, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported timber for flooring.
With locally made 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 timber flooring 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 first-grade 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 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 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 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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