HIGH PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 8

HIGH PRICES.

PROPERTY DEALS. CHANGES IN CITY. MODERN QUEEN STREET. PROGRESS OF 35 YEARS. When a Queen Street property was sold at £400 ft foot 3o years ago business men looked aghast. "When will such high prices, end?" was the general comment. Since then Queen Street has. had an ever-changing face and more than four times £400 a foot has been paid for sites. Ill© peak reached in 1928, when approximately £1750 a foot was the purchase price for Queen's Arcade, while a few weeks ago the Bank of New South Wales bought a 66ft frontage at approximately £1500 a foot for a modern banking chamber and offices. Worked out per square foot this purchase would probably represent a higher cost than the arcade block, since the depth is not as great. Since the inauguration of electric trams in 1902, Queen Street has undergone many changes. Large shop premises have been subdivided and re-subdivided to meet the demands for smaller business premises, and rents average from £1 2/6 to £1 10/ a foot frontage, according to depth and position. In the early days of the present century Queen Street was full of pot-holes and horse-drawn vehicles, and trams were the only means of transport. A retired business man said to-day that, a dray of netal was regularly on the street filling in the holes. The driver, with trousers equipped with the old familiar bow-yangs, would cry "whoa." The horse would stop, some metal would be shovelled into a hole, and on would go the dray to the next indentation.

"When the electric tram service was inaugurated modern Queen Street emerged," he said. "Every year new buildings have been erected or old buildings modernised, and that is still going on, although there was a cessation during the depression." Confidence Created. "Recent sales in Queen Street have created an atmosphere of confidence in city properties," commented the City Valuer, Mr. P. F. Notley, this morning. "From a valuer's point of view banks and other buildings of a similar nature are detrimental to a shopping centre because they are invariably built without verandahs. Many of these institutions are on the western side and that is a reason why so many people walk on the eastern side. Of course this is particularly noticeable in wet weather, and we get our fair share of that."

Referring to Queen Street values, Mr. Notley said that although high prices had been given recently for certain properties, landowners who came before the Assessment Court discounted the prices given when the question of sales was discussed.

"They invariably say 'Oh, but so and so was a special sale. Nobody else but the particular purchaser quoted would dream of giving that price.' That may be so," continued Mr. Notley, "and I realise that at times- perhaps more is given for a property than it is really worth, but a valuer must necessarily be influenced by such sales, even if he does not- fix ■ surrounding. values at the same price as the particular instance that may be quoted." Half-mile Radius. Mr. Notley said that one-sixth of the city's revenue from rates came from properties within a radius of half a mile from the Central Post Office. The rateable value of Auckland, including the suburbs, of "Teater Auckland, for 193738 was £2,622,316. One of Auckland's leading architects said to-day that about the time that the new Government came into office a number of overseas business houses was contemplating building in Auckland and other New Zealand cities, but the advent of the Labour Government had "scared them off." He was of the opinion, however, that they would soon be making inquiries for properties as they were bound to be influenced by the confidence in New Zealand which was. being expressed by the recent purchases of Auckland city properties by two leading banking institutions. ' A land agent who has had a great deal to do with the sale of city properties during the past quarter of a century, said that the Queen Street shopping area was very limited and it was difficult for small business men to obtain premises. The most valuable area, he considered, was between Wyndham Street and : Customs Street on both sides. There was a great demand for shops with a frontage of from 15 to 20ft. During the depression period, he said, shop rents, in common with other things, slumped, but they were now back to their old 13vel or higher. Office rents, however, had not shown the same indication. There was a tendency for those who required offices to rent them in buildings where central heating was installed. He added that during the last 12 years there had been only about 24 sales of Queen Street property between Customs Street and Rutland Street, prices ranging from £600 to £1750 a foot. It was only half a mile between the two streets, and that constituted what might be termed the city's main shopping area, apart from Karangahape Road. One could not go north because of the harbour, nor south because of the hills.! East and west, generally speaking, were also hilly, except in the lower part of the city, where shopping was extending somewhat towards the east.' Customs } 'Street was an ex&iuple of rtjai. j