PROPERTY SALES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 17 August 1944, Page 2

PROPERTY SALES

REDUCTIONS IN PRICE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) • Wellington. This Day. Figures were quoted by Mr W. M. C. Denham (Government, Invercargill) in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives with the object of showing that substantial savings in the purchase price of property had been effected under the Land Sales Act and that the operation of legislation had not had the effect of putting an end to property transactions. Mr Denham said that in the first six months of this year property transfers totalled 13,165, compared with 15,363 for the corresponding period of 1943, a decrease of 2198 or 14.26 per cent. There were 2177 fewer transfers of house properties in the first six months of this year than in the corresponding period of last year, the figures for the first six months of this year being 10,644 and for the first six months of last year 12.821, a decrease of 17 per cent. But, said Mr Denham, the point he wished to emphasise was the reductions in price that had taken place to date under the land sales committees. In respect of rural properties the reductions totalled £43,090. Returned soldiers had been saved hundreds of pounds through the operation of the Lands Sales Act. which the Opposition had condemned. Mr T. C. Webb (National, Kaipara): We had valuers last time. Mr Denham: Yes, but you want more than valuers. There wasn’t the check up that there is now. It is illegal to sell at certain prices now. Continuing, Mr Denham said that the reductions effected on urban properties totalled £191,244. In the aggregate reductions amounted to £234,334. The Opposition posed as the farmers’ friends. No wonder they voted against the introduction of the Land Sales Act—‘they believed in profit. Mr F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga): Do you believe in profit? Mr Denham said he did believe in profit, provided it did not go to the profiteers but to the public for their benefit