The 1940’s Housing Shortage}
Often described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the Australian effort to address a very troubling problem has in time come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly 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 narrowed the options. Emphasis in state housing plans was at first on rental accommodation; 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-operatives were offering greater opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a rise in building costs.
High on the list of factors linked to rising costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour working week, and marked increases in the cost of building materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unqualified building labourer a higher wage than a tradesperson 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 poor quality construction and a blow out in construction 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 happen when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly unobtainable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported flooring material.
With local cement taking forever to turn up, a truckload from across the border was sometimes purchased at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices hardwood flooring had, by 1948, increased 100 per cent 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 cost-cutting.
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 of the house to the absolute minimum. Ceiling heights had been gradually 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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