Sometimes described in the post-war years as `the housing shortage’, the Australian effort to address a very troubling issue has in time come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and building. There was also a notable increase in home 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 budget dwellings. At a time when various influencers had reduced the availability of rental homes, 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 jump in construction input costs.

Top 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 tradie had received in early 1946.

To keep both labourer and tradie economically employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare thing during this period. A shortage of skilled workers also meant poor quality building 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 rates 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 batch from interstate was sometimes bought at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber 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 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 home to 1200 square feet (111.48 square metres) for a timber house and 1250 square feet (116.12 square metres) for a brick house, completed the recipe for an imposed design modesty.

The economical plan was necessary; 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 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 an imposed state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.

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