SALE OF BOARDING HOUSE SOUGHT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 5

SALE OF BOARDING HOUSE SOUGHT

£BOOO ASKED FOR “ SEAVIEW,” TIMARU From Our Own Reporter TIMARU, July 15. The market value of a boardinghouse and its value based on cost less depreciation were two different things, said the chairman of the Canterbury Rural Land Sales Committee (Mr W. H. Nicholls) during the hearing today of an application for the sale of the Seaview private boardinghouse. Containing 33 rooms, the boarding--house is situated in Stafford street, Timaru, overlooking Caroline Bay. A number of boardinghouses was being dealt with by the committee, said the chairman, for with staffing difficulties proprietors were “working themselves to a standstill and then being forced to sell out. The: cost, less depreciation, is therefore often rather illusory.” Taking the price sought, £BOOO, and the value placed on the property by Mr P. B. Foote, for the vendors, which was about £Bl3B, the chairman said that the average rental of £ll received for the property, after deduction of rates, insurance and depreciation, capitalised at just on 5 per cent. “I am merely raising a doubt as to whether the material assets are supported in value to-day.”

The vendors in the application, on which the Court reserved its decision, were William Robertson Fraser, a stock buyer, of Timaru, and Eric William Ballantyne Dodd, an auctioneer, of Te Awamutu. The purchaser was Reginald Norman Hay, of Christchurch. For the Crown, Messrs B. C. Wilson and J. M. G. Johnston placed the value of the land at £1540, the buildings at £4290, and other improvements at £135.