PROPERTY MARKET

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 130, 26 February 1937, Page 10

PROPERTY MARKET

Renewal of Activity

SOME RECENT SALES Thanks to the freeing of a good deal of locked-up capital property sales have been much more frequent and more successful of late than for many years past. It is a good sign when people are just as eager to buy as others are to sell. Probably the incidence of the land tax is causing people with large holdings of property to get rid of some of it, for the larger the holding the heavier the rate of taxation; but that is not the cause of all the many sales of city and suburban property which have been announced since the New Year. Rates and land tax press heavily on the owners of city properties, and only if a building is well let does the owner manage to come out on the right side. In many instances the land tax was doubled last year, and some owners are said to be hard put to it to make ends meet.

There have been several sales of sections in the Tawa Flat area, and as the opening of the electrified railway line draws near stacks of timber are appearing here and there over the sunny paddocks in that district —the homes of to-morrow. The demand at Titahi Bay is also brisking up. The erection of the big broadcasting station there has helped to bring the district under notice, and some property sales have been effected within recent months.

The growth of Paraparaumu is rather remarkable.' As an example, the golf links estate —so called because the syndicate set aside 125 acres as a golf course—was divided into 189 sections only a few years ago. To-day only 28 sections remain unsold. While many buyers contented themselves with building small week-end cottages, there are really fine permanent homes among the new houses, some costing up to £2OOO. With its mild climate and flue beach Paraparaumu’s future seems fairly assured. One of the biggest and most successful sales of property near Wellington registered in recent months was the Sir Francis Bell estate at Lowry Bay. This consisted of some 15 acres of land lying along the main road and extending into the low hill slopes at the back of the homestead. The estate was cut up into 44 lots, of which 42 have been sold, and already builders are at work making new homes for the buyers. The homestead was purchased by Mr. A. A. Stichbury, Wellington. Notable among the sales of private residences reported are those of the late Mr. Justice MacGregor, of 39 Wadestown Road, and Dr. R. Campbell Begg, at Lower Hutt. The former property was purchased by Dr. I. M. Allen and the latter by an Englishwoman.