Often described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the Australian effort to address a very serious issue has over the years come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and building. There was also a marked increase in house 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 plans was at first on rental accommodation; later there was a swing toward the ownership of low-cost housing. At a time when various influencers had cut the availability 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 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 tradesman 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 thing in those times. A shortage of skilled workers also meant lower quality work 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 unprocurable, 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 delivery 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 value. 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 12 squares (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 economy.

The economical floor plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and generous porches were deleted, reducing the shelter at the front entrance to a minimum area. 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 a mandated state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.

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