LAND SALES ACT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1945, Page 4

LAND SALES ACT

The recent publicity given under this heading fails to disclose one kind of "racket." Owners use land agents to supply them with a buyer and because the agent has a commission at stake and knows the "run of the ropes," the vendor thinks he will be the means of obtaining for him a high valuation at the Land Sales Committee (althoi;gh, of course, the agent never submits a valuation for a property he himself has sold). After the committee gives its decision the vendor turns down the agent's buyer (who has waited anxiously for two months) as he never had any intention to pay an agent's fee, advertises the property himself, and as the Land Sales Committee value has been arrived at, he knows exactly what sum to demand of his private buyer "under the table" in order to obtain the figure he has decided to sell at. What chance for a Kiwi? None at all. The Government has the power to stop the black market by the simple expedient of enacting a law that all properties shall first be submitted to a tribunal of Kiwis. This also should apply to businesses, which at the present time are sold to the highest bidder, and anyone who tries to buy a business knows the exorbitant amount of goodwills asked and paid. What chance for a Kiwi? None. SOLDIERS LAST.