Rents of a substantial number of Commonwealth-owned homes in Canberra were to be raised by one shilling to 25 shillings a week, The Canberra Times reported on this day 59 years ago.
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The minister for the interior, Gordon Freeth, announced more convenient terms for tenants to buy Commonwealth houses they were occupying. He said the government had decided rents would be calculated in accordance with the principles of the economic rent formula contained in the Commonwealth and State Housing Agreement of 1945.
This agreement would provide that the economic rent of any dwelling shall be calculated according to a formula.
Until the new Housing Agreement of 1956 came into effect, the rate of interest paid by the states on funds provided by the Commonwealth was 3 per cent per annum.
The rate of interest payable was 4 per cent per annum. Mr Freeth said for more than 12 years, successive governments recognised for a number of reasons, the costs of Canberra housing were higher than in Sydney or Melbourne, from which much of the population had come.
