REAL ESTATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1927, Page 15

REAL ESTATE.

LAND AND BUILDINGS.

NEW INSURANCE STRUCTURE.'

A start is to be made on the con- ■ struction of an eight-storey building in j Queen Street for the Colonial Mutual; Life Assurance Company, Ltd., on March ! 14. The site adjoins the offices of the j Bank of Australasia, and has a frontage of 63ft to Queen Street by a depth of | 110 ft. The offices of the company will i be situated on the ground floor, and the j entrance will be located through a spa- j cious passage way at the side of the ! present bank building. The remainder j of the Queen Street frontage will be occupied by shops, fitted and designed i in the most up-to-date manner. The | structure will be a steel frame, ferro concrete building and will be one of the finest of its description yet erected in Auckland. The design comes from Messrs. Swan, Lawrence and Swan, Wellington, and the contractors are the j Fletcher Construction Company. j

Mr. C. L. Melville, manager of the company, arrived in Auckland this week, and after inspecting the site expressed the opinion that it was excellent and that the building was quite justified for the citv.

A new and spacious addition is shortly to be made to the College of the Sacred Heart, Christchureh. The contract has been secured by Messrs. D. Scott and Sons, and the price is £10,373. It is expected that the building will be completed by the end of tiie year. Built of brick, with slate roof, the new double-story school will include everything that is up-to-date in constructions of this type. On the ground floor there will be an assembly hall 57ft x 25ft 6in, and three class-rooms, each 25ft square. Behind the classrooms a wide corridor will extend the length of the building, and every room will be given maximum lighting in the most modern way. On the lirst floor will be five class-rooms, approximately of the same size as those below. Ventilation has been particularly well catered for, and the type of construction— hollow brick walls—will ensure a solidly built school of sufficient size to cater for the wants of the Sacred Heart College for many Years to come.

SLUM CLEARANCE SCHEME. } A slum clearance scheme, calculated i to cost £500,000, has been put forward by the Glasgow Corporation. Fifty per ( cent of the annual loss of £17,000 over a period of the next sixty years will be ( paid by the Government. The Director of Housing, referring to previous slum clearance schemes, said it was his experience that SO to 90 per cent of the people who were removed had been improved by their environment, both physically and mentally. They had risen to the new situation, and some of them said they would never <>o back to the old state of affairs. They are now starting with a clean sheet, and he was asked to provide 100 l houses to make up for those which would be demolished

Within reasonable access of the places where the persons were now living, the new sites would have densities varying from 19.23 persons per .acre to as high as 33J. The reason for the varying densities was that in small districts streets were already formed, 'while Jn the new districts they had virgin areas and could lay down streets as they liked. Their original policy was to build 75 per ccnt two-apartment houses and 25 per cont three-apartment houses, but that had now been changed'to 50 per ccnt each.

PROGRESS IN THE CITY.. The building returns as issued by the Auckland City Council for January "show a. substantial decrease on the figure* l for the same period .of 1925. As is usual the first month of the year is never a heavy one as far as building is concerned, and any decrease that may •be shown is not to be taken * as evidence 'that there is a slump in the trade. January is the month when all trades are just beginning to settle down, and most of the business firms are not reallv in full movement after the holidavs until near the end of the month. The usual routine of business in the building world for the first month covers altera" tions to premises and the erection of dwellings, none of which run into many figures. Dwellings are possiblv the most consistent of any building, and there never seems to be any decrease in the number beiug erected" For last month a total of 194 permits wore issued, involving a cost of £53,203. Of this number 40 were for dwellings. The largest contract Jet last month was for a block of shops in ' Great South Road for £3450. By comparison the figures for the same period of last year "were IS2 permits valued at £71,04*7, fifty oi which were for dwellings. The decrease this year is therefore £18,744. The new hall at Swanson was opened a week or so ago and it is a credit to the contractors and to the people oi the district. It fills a long felt need for the district and with the screening of pictures,' social functions and dances the hall is becoming already a most popular acquisition.

Anzac Avenue, where over £1,000.000 worth of building was commenced last year, now presents a more finished state. Most of the large concrete structures are almost completed, and in some cases the floor space has been let and occupied. Within a mouth the workmen engaged on the five buildings under construction should be awav and the few vacant sections, it is anticipated. will not be long in their present state. Good progress is being made with the building of the new home for the Yorkshire Insurance Company - in Shortland Street. The contractors are at present devoting their attention, to the sinking of the foundations, after which it will not be long before the building proper begins to rise to its idtimate height of nine storevs. There is still a good deal to do on the Dilworth Trust building in Queen Street. The exterior facings of white concrete are being attended to at present and give a good idea of what the finished work will look like. The interior finishings are being pushed on rapidlv and before the elapse of manv more weeks the entire structure will be ready for occupation. Other works in and about the city are progressing well, and it can be said that there is no decrease in the actual activity of the trade.