CITY PROPERTY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14978, 26 April 1909, Page 5

CITY PROPERTY.

SALE IN CHRISTCHURCH

HIGH PRICES REALISED. A good deal of interest was taken in a land "sale held in Christchurch on Saturday by ’Messrs Pyno and Co. The property offered at auction belonged to the Creyke estate, and comprised some very valuable blocks in the heart of the city. There, was h. largo attendance of purchasers and of tho public, and in some cases there was very brisk bidding. The keenest competition was for a block of buildings running from Hereford Street to Cathedral Square, adjoining the Bank of New Zealand, and occupied by Messrs Henderson and Burns, Kinsey, Barns and Co., W. E. Simes and the Alliance Assurance Company, on Hereford Street, and by Mr Allan Hopkins, on Cathedral Square. After a great deal of competition the block, without tho piece or land occupied by the Alliance Company, was. sold to Mr Hopkins for £IB,OOO. Bidding started at £12,000 and increased by bids of £SOO. It has a frontage on both Hereford Street and Cathedral Square of 45ft, and the price was therefore £4OO per foot, double frontage. It is stated that the total is the highest pries paid for any single block of land, in Christchurch. The Alliance block was passed in. Mr Hopkins intends to make extensive improvements on tho block. The whole, of the Cathedral Square frontage will be built on at once, and alterations and extensions will be made to the buildings on the Hereford Street frontage. Another city block, occupied by Messrs Smith, Anthony and Co., fronting a right-of-way • between Cashel Street and ’Lichfield Street, was sold to Mr J. Anderson for £IBSO. For a piece of land with 67ft frontage to St Asaph and Martop. Streets, with a depth of 142 ft Sin, occupied by Messrs Dearsley and Taylor, bidding started at £ISOO and rose to £I6OO, at which figure the property was withdrawn. Subsequently Messrs Baker Bros, purchased it for £I7OO. Premises in Lichfield Street, at present occupied by Messrs Aitken and Roberts as a metal yard, wore started at £2OOO and rose by bids of £IOO to £2450, at which figure the property was withdrawn. For a town section in_ Lyttelton, having a. frontage of 40ft sin to London Street by a depth of 165 ft, the highest bid was £SOO, and the. property was withdrawn. For a farm at Tai Tapu, of 172 acres, the highest bid was £23 per acre, at which price it was withdrawn. Messrs Pyne and Co. also offered the Winterslow Run, eleven miles from Methven, consisting of eighty acres freehold and 30,000 acres leasehold. Bidding started at £SOOO and rose to £6OOO, at which figure the property, was withdrawn. In conjunction with Messrs H. Matson and Co., Messrs Pyno and Co. offered 38 acres 1 perch of freehold land at Hillsborough. The opening bid was

£3O per acre, and the bids rose by £1 per acre until £35 per acre was reached, at which price the property was sold to Misses Mary and Janet Duncan.