LAND SALES ACT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 304, 23 December 1944, Page 6

LAND SALES ACT

POSITION ACCEPTED

"BLACK MARKET" ALLEGED

O.C. CHRISTCHURCH, this day. While general satisfaction was expressed by Christchurch land and estate agents with the operation of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Act, one leading agent claimed that the Act had not achieved its desired result in keeping down property values. £lis contention was based on what he described as "extensive black market trading," which he considered was impossible to stop, even although land agents and solicitors refused to recognise "under the table" transactions by their clients. "It appears that the Land Sales Act has come to stay, and we have to put up with it," said Mr. N. H. McCrostie. "It has not been as bad as was thought at.first, when the average agent believed that the control would sound the death knell of the estate agent's business. That has not happened sp far. "We are now becoming used to the procedure," said Mr. McCrostie, "and the public realise that they have to have their sales approved. They are accepting the position philosophically." Mr. McCrostie considered that the Act should be amended to eliminate city business premises and big residences that did not affect returned servicemen. Messrs. O. F. Baker and H. T. Penrose, on the other hand, believed that the sale of sections in the metropolitan area should not be subject to control if they were below £200 to £250 in value. They also considered that residential properties over £3000 in value should be exempted from the operations of the Act. Development Retarded One of the reasons given for the 1 exemption of low-priced sections was that the operation of the Act had a tendency to retard development because owners of big blocks of land suitable for subdivision felt that the prices permitted for the sale of the sections were unsatisfactory. It was also stated that a cut in the sale price of a section was often so small that it would not materially affect the total cost of providing a new home, yet the holder of the land considered he was making an unnecessary sacrifice. All the agents were agreed, however, that some form of control was necessary, and that the Christchurch Land Sales Committees had . been fair and reasonable in the majority of cases, and their decisions had given satisfaction to buyers and sellers alike.