Prices For Real Estate “Steady During Year”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 17

Prices For Real Estate “Steady During Year”

By and large the year which ended on July 31, 1961, has teen one of reasonably buoyant trading, with prices steady at the level established over the last three or four years, the retiring president Of the Canterbury-Westland branch of the -Real Estate institute of New Zealand (Mr R. K. Baker) said in his report to the annual meeting of the branch. "All classes of urban property have found a ready market if they have been realistically priced,” said Mr Baker, according to a supplied report. Persons who dealt with rural properties hftd told him that their experience was much the same, though they had noticed a .slackening since April or May. “Mortgage finance, at least till the last few weeks, has been in reasonable supply, though mostly at not less than 6 per cent, I know of very few sales which have fallen down through lack of finance,’ 1 Mr Baker said. He said that statistics supplied by the Land Transfer Office showed that- the number of transfers registered, after being practically static since 1955, increased in the year teded March 31 by more than 10 per cent. It was a very significant increase, he said.

Prospects Assessed .The future was hot so easy to assess, Mr Baker said. A number of factors contributed to this—the uneasy international situation, the resumption of nuclear teats. New Zealand’s internal financial position—but perhaps it was the apparent forthcoming entry of Britain into the E.E.C. Which was causing the greatest concern at the moment. “The loss of opr traditional markets and the possible drop in our overseas income are making the man in the street very conscious of oUr economic positionat the moment,” he said. "I believe that our natural enterprise will overcome these difficulties, and though we may have to tighten our belts somewhat for a time I think the long-term advantages of diversification—both of product and of marketwill be of benefit to us all,”

Mr Baker said. “How this will affect the estate market is difficult to say, but I honestly and sincerely believe that with their great natural resources, Christchurch and Canterbury, in spite of temporary set-backs, have a great future ahead of them.” Loans For Older Homes

Mr Baker said that it was mainly because of pressure from the institute that the Government had agreed to relax its policy of State lending to include older homes. He believed that legislation was to be introduced this Session to give effect to this promise. The council and the executive had continued their negotiations with the Government regarding a new Land Agents Act (or, as the institute would like it to be known, a new Real Estate Agents Act) but as had been found in the past progress had been slow and it appeared rather doubtful if anything would be done this year. “This is a most important matter, and I feel sure that the council will continue to press the Government for greater recognition and protection for our members,” Mr Baker said.