Business Rents Not Expected To Jump

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30592, 7 November 1964, Page 3

Business Rents Not Expected To Jump

Christchurch tenants had not been up against the extremely avaricious type of landlord that existed in some North Island centres, said the superintendent of the Christchurch district of the Labour Department (Mr C. P. Collins) yesterday.

With a generally good relationship in Christchurch between landlords and tenants, he said, provisions of the Tenancy Amendment Act, 1964, to become effective after November 18 this year, were not expected to cause a big rise in rents. The tenant of business premises who wanted an extension of his tenancy beyond November 18, said Mr Collins, must give his landlord notice before that date. The act, he said, required the landlord in turn to give notice to the tenant stating whether or not he was prepared to extend the tenancy and, if he was, the terms in which he would let the premises. Mr Collins said that he did not think there would be a big application of the amendment locally.

“I think that business premises rents in Christchurch will largely find their own level,” he said. “There is not a terribly acute demand for business premises in Christchurch. “The development of suburban shopping areas in Christchurch in recent years has considerably eased the demand for business premises for letting.” Mr Collins said that the act had only limited application. It concerned only business premises and then only when the tenant had no tenancy extending beyond November 18, 1964. The act had no application to dwellings or flats.