SOME AMAZING LAND SALES.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 49, 30 November 1909, Page 6

SOME AMAZING LAND SALES.

PLOTS THAT FETCH £3,000,000 PER ACHE. At tho moment when there is so miu'h discussion concerning the taxation of land values, tho following facts and ligures concerning some amazing land deals may not prore uninteresting. Probably many arc already aware that the most valuable land in the world is that which comprises the square mile of the City of London. Twenty and thirty pounds per square foot is quite a common price, • and there arc instances where over double that amount lias been paid.

Six years ago, for instance, sonic offices were sold at the junction .of Old Broad street and Thread needle street, the price for the freehold being £210,000, or nearly £7O per sqjiare foot. This works out at £630 per square yard, or £3,049,200 per acre.

COR Nil ILL AND LOMBARD STREET. Just to tiie east of tho Mansion House in Lombard street is an area of naif an acre which —Leiore the present: otiddings were erected on the site two years ago —was valued at a million sterling. The purchasers actually raised £OOO,OOO on a mortgage. Twelve years ago the freehold ground rent of a block in Cornliill was sold at a price which worked out at £2,4.52,023 per acre. Further west values are lower, and in 1901 in Cheapside, 500 ft retched £13,000, or £26 per square foot. In tiie same month some free,iold land near Lincoln was sold at 1-Jd per yard—witli a cottage thrown in.

A VALUABLE PITCH. In March of this year the Corporation of London purchased a site which •ad long been occupied by a i'ruit-stali in Ship Tavern Passage, Graceciiurcj: street, at approximately £3O per square ant, w.niie land in Lombard street .'inges anywhere from £37 to £SO the .square foot. One of the most notable sales in rcent times was that of the splendid site it Corn hill on which the Commercial

fnion offices now stand. This contained an area of about 2500 feet, and sold is vacant land for £113,500, or £-'>s ■i foot. About three years ago a site n Lombard street, containing 1.600 was let by auction at £3OOO per annum, which, caluculated at 25 years' .'iirchase, represents about £47 per foot or the freehold of the vacant site-

"It seems clear, therefore," to quote from a guide to the Budget, published ';v Jfetliuen, "that if any firm or corporation should seek to acquire land n tins locality, with a view to the orwtion of some great commercial premises, r hey must, in the event of the requisite site coming into the market, be prepared to pay at least £SO for the ■Toehold of every superficial foot of ground on which their new premises ire to stand."

BARGAINS MADE BY DTJKES. Land in New York, by the way, is ilmost as expensive. A 'little piece of land at tho corner of Thirty-eighth street, measuring 25ft by 100 ft, changed lands for £140,000 (£2,413,224 per icre), which would make the price per foot equivalent to about £55 ~s. Iho next highest Fifth Avenue ;-rico was made a. few months ago, when £42 per square foot (£1,68!),520 nor acre) was given for a similarly -;ma!l piece of ground. Some striking illustrations of the enormous rise in land values are furnished by the prices which have been isivod by noblo landlords when they n.ave been approached to sell portions of their estates. Tho Duke of Nor■iflumberland, for instance, who is the >wner of most of the land in Throckley, Durham, was approached some time ago by the Thiv-ekley Co-operative Association with tho request that lie should sell land for tho purpose of hi lid nig a branch store. They ultimately procured some from him at 5s "or square yard.

The Town Council of Edinburgh reonired land for the erection of gasworks in the neighborhood of Granton. The land belonged to the Duke of Btie"leugh. and comprised 105 acres, partbuilt on and rated on an average at £5 10s T>er acre. At 30 years' pur"hnso n{ the assessed value tho price would have beep £lfis Per acre, and + ho total price for the land £17.325. The Town Council paid tho Duke £124,000, or over £llBO per acre.

WHAT THE HAD

TO PAY,

The City -of Liverrool Council some "ears aoo sold land in Victoria street to the Government for the purpose of a temporary '-•ost office at, £l2 10s per v ard. Immediatelv oppos'te there was an old pit, wnloh had never been except as a receptacle for the rubbish of the district; but when tho Government wanted 1 to build a new post office the owners of the pit demanded £59

per square yard, and because the obmmerce in Liverpool demanded a new post office the Government had to pay the sum demanded.

Even in Limehouse, one of the poorest and most congested areas in London, the price of land is amazing. In 1890 the London County Council went to Parliament for powers to purchase Albert Square Gardens (two-thirds of an acre), to preserve it as an open space. The umpire awarded, and the council had to pay, £10,5G0, being at the rate of about £15,850 per acre.