H-Files: Auckland's first housing crisis a century ago when soldiers returned from World War I

A bungalow being built in Auckland in 1925 at Point England, which was at the time one of the city's new suburbs. Photo / Herald file

We might think it is a modern problem, but Auckland suffered a housing crisis, or at least a "scarcity of houses" a century ago.

The problem was so serious in 1919, just months after the end of World War I, that the Herald ran an eight-part series on the topic.

Headlines in the series included "Demand exceeds supply", "Position grows acute", "Present costs prohibitive", and "Difficulties of builders".

Soldiers were returning from the war, a surge of British immigration was anticipated, building materials had increased sharply in price and carpenters' wages had risen too.

Sixteen years before the 1935 election of the first Labour Government, which got stuck into building state houses, experts wondered in the Herald series whether more worker cottages should be built by councils or the Government.

And architects called for council rules to change to allow greater housing intensification - a policy echoed in today's Auckland housing crisis.

"The chief shortage is for houses to let, but the supply of dwellings for sale is likewise very limited," the Herald wrote in April 1919.

"Not only the cottage of four or five rooms, but the more pretentious house of six or seven rooms is almost impossible to obtain. According to land and estate agents, the present situation is unique. Some of them declare that never in the history of the city has the demand for residences so greatly exceeded the supply."

This was a turnaround from several months earlier when agents told the Auckland City Council there were plenty of houses for workers and the council consequently shelved a plan it was considering to build workers' homes.

The return of soldiers was making the shortage of houses more acute.

"In numerous cases," the Herald said, "the wives of men going away gave up their homes and went to live with friends on the house-sharing plan. Others migrated to the various boarding houses. Now that the husbands are coming back from the war the natural result is that they and their families want to reinstate themselves in another home of their own."

The Otago Daily Times weighed in too on Auckland's housing problem, quoting one unnamed authority who held that fancier tastes in housing - and an objection to sameness - were largely to blame.

"People today simply will not tolerate a plain, old-fashioned style. They insist on a better class of house altogether - better appearance and better finish - and I think it is a very good thing that they do."

To make a profit from housing, a developer needed to standardise the design, the authority said.

"[But people] no more wish to have a house like their neighbour's than they want to follow his taste in clothes or anything else."

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The Herald said rent increases had been outstripped by the rising costs of building.

From 1914 to 1919 the average rent for a small house increased by 25 per cent.

But building a six-roomed house - excluding the price of the land - would cost about £850 in 1919, an increase of about £350, or 70 per cent, in 18 months. When adjusted for general inflation, £850 in 1919 is worth about $88,877 today.

An architect urged councils to permit self-contained tenements and residential flats.

Summarising his views, the Herald wrote: "The residential flat is not the ideal dwelling for a man with a family of small children, but dwelling accommodation must be provided for which families with a limited income can afford to pay.

"Artisans, moreover, are inclined to live near their work, and land in the city is so prohibitive in price that the residential flat offers at least a practical solution of the difficulty. By this method could be provided two or three bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and conveniences, for each of 16 families, as against four, based on a frontage of 30 feet [9m] for each house."