BRITISH FARM LANDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23830, 4 December 1940, Page 11

BRITISH FARM LANDS

BOOM CAUSED BY WAR j i GREAT REVIVAL IN DEMAND [i-rom our own correspondent] LOXDOX, Nov. 1 War has caused a boom in agricultural land values. Every class of investor is buying good English farm land. The man with money realises, with a sudden shocked clarity of vision, that land is the one investment which cannot burn up, run away or be bombed out of existence. War has clarified and weeded out a great many urban values. At any of the former "necessities" of over-pampered civilisation of a year ago are shown now to have been mere unnecessary luxuries or unproductive amenities. So the farm lands of Britain have come back to their own. Everything derives from the land, whether it is food, clothes, buildings, drink or transport. But fond and clothing come first. The result is that farms which grow crops and beasts, fruit and vegetables, poultry and pigs have steadily appreciated in value since the memorable September 3. 1939 A firm of estate agents which has sold approximately 30.000 acres of land since the war began said that on a broad, general average, prices have appreciated bv from In to 20 per cent. Thev are still risine. But building land is at a discount. There is no demand for it. And there is practically no lonesighted investment in land which might conceivably be regarded as having building value after the war is finished. Hitler has done a f least one good thine for this country. By the rude shock of his bombs, bv the merciless onrush of his invading hordes on the Continent, he has restored faith in British land.