PROPERTY PRICES

Grey River Argus, 31 January 1946, Page 6

PROPERTY PRICES

INFLATED BIDDING P.A. DUNEDIN, January 30. A warning that if excessive bidding at auctions continued it might deem it necessary to take the powers invested in it and pass the property sale at a figure above the basic value, was given by the Otago Land Sales Committee, yesterday, in a memorandum to an application for withdrawal of transfer. “The Committee is concerned at the grossly inflated bidding which has been taking place at auction sales. This tends to upset property prices and to add to the work of the Committee and valuation staffs. Vendors are entitled lo select their buyer as they wish, and decide upon the method and terms of sale, while the Committee’s function is merely to control prices, but the Committee expects that all contracts submitted to it for consent shall be genuine legal contracts, which the parties are prepared to carry into effect and not frivolous arrangements, at an absurdly inflated price by which neither party intends to abide. In the case now before the Committee, a property was sold by auction at £2,150, but upon learning the Crown valuation, the vendor immediately agreed to reduce the price to £1,300.