PROPERTY SALES IN YEAR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27533, 15 December 1954, Page 16

PROPERTY SALES IN YEAR

VALUERS’ INSTITUTE REVIEWS TRENDS

EASING OF TENANCY ACT URGED (New Zealand. Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 14. Real estate prices were likely to be steady during the coming year, but further legislation easing the tenancy Act should be expected, said a spokesman for the public relations committee of the New Zealand Institute of Valuers, Mr R. H. Rolle, in a review of the property market Issued today. Mr Rolle said that the market had been brisk during the year. Prices generally, in the main centres, had shown a moderate upward tendency, but in the smaller towns and the outlying areas of the larger cities there seemed to have been a slight easing. During the latter part of the year there was a heavy increase in the demand for houses in the higher price groups. This had occurred just before the election, a time that was usually quiet.

Building costs had eased slightly, but not sufficiently to have any important bearing on the market. Land prices had moved forward, particularly in subdivisional land. Much of this had been caused by the costs of subdivision, and it was doubted whether the vendors had benefited from the higher figures. Discussing the Tenancy Act, Mr Rolle said that disturbing inconsistencies in rental assessments throughout New Zealand were shown in a recent Dominion-wide survey by the institute. In a test set of details in the survey scarcely one district’s result agreed with another, interest rates alone varying by as much as 1 per cent. Amendments to the Tenancy Act had created confusion. In a recent instance it had been found that the rental of a particular shop could be anything from £l2 to £lB a week according to various interpretations on legal grounds, not on valuers’ opinion.

“Owners of residential property are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the present legislation regarding fair rents, particularly in view of maintenance charges,” Mr Rolle said. “Most people appear to agree that some form of control is necessary and that the maximum should be rent based on current value.”

In some of the smaller towns it had been suggested that the control of commercial rentals was retarding development, as low rents discouraged building enterprises. There was a growing agitation for a new Tenancy Act, instead of amendments, he concluded.