THE PROPERTY MARKET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17754, 13 April 1921, Page 7

THE PROPERTY MARKET

CONDITIONS IN PROVINCE.

" DULL BUT NOT DEAD."

DEMAND FOR SMALL FARMS. The effect of the financial stringency and the fall in the valaes of produce lispon the property market was discussed yesterday by several prominent land ace:?'.?. The general experience appears to ho thai the land market is dull but not de;id. While the tightness of money was t ei »>, tainly reducing the demand for 'and. said one authority, good land was stiil attraei ing buyers and some transactions were going through. He that too much pessimism, was being talked, the reason doubtless being that comparisons were being limited to the recent abnormal years. Present business in land was not much below that of pre-war times.. Speaking of dairy land he said therr had not been a great de; re- iation in values, for they had never had the full world's market prices ; >r dairy produce. Asked :f the genera! tendency would be for a lower standard in land value? and for the legitimate farmer to do better, this, authority said this appeared U- be certain. There had been far too mu« h speculative buying in the past and personally he welcomed the present depression because it wouid have the effect of stabilising the market. Within rcv-er.t years it had been no uncommon thing for a property to change hands three limes in about that number of days, each selier making a profit. He was afraid some, of those who had bought land at the highest price'- would not be able to carry on. A percentage of failures seemed to be m evitable. Probably tliose who would have the most serious difficulties would be those who had bought fairly large farms, the estimates of their earning capacity being on the optimistic side. There was no question that many of the larger farms had not been worked to produce the estimated return. Often parts of these holdings were not sufficiently improved to return the average. The prices given for numbers of such properties had never been justified. "A Little Farm Well Tilled.' One effect of the financial stringency seemed to be that far more prospective buyers were now looking for small farms. It was being realised apparently that small areas intensively fanned would make as good a return as a large farm where a man's resources were limited, and at a lower outlay. For instance, six inquiries had been received in three days for .1 farm of about 60 acres that could he bought for about £50 an acre, Similarly there was some inquiry for sma'l grazing properties by men who formerly would probably have looked for much larger propositions a short time ago. There appeared to be a development of the idea that smaller holdings and intensive cultivation were the thing to-day. Many men were realising that it was better to make a j thorough job of a small farm than to have more extensive aTeas and rely upon nature to a great extent. Another agent stated that practically no business was being done in farm land. I Many properties were being placed in j agents' hands, but prices had not been rei duced. This was usually a dull season for sales, but this year it was doubly duLL, The general position at the moment was that both prospective buyers and prospective sellers were "hanging on "'"to see I how values would turn. The uncertainty > of future prices was a strong factor. This | agent mentioned that the legislation of 1 last session which had declared a mora--3 torium over money held by private instif tutions on deposit for short periods or at i call had further tightened the property 3 market. There were people who might 1 buy if they could get the money they s had lent. Speaking generally of the out J look in the Auckland district, he said ■ that while the values of land would certainly come down to a lower level, the 3 drop would not be so great as in Hawke's . Bay and other parts where there were - large areas of first-class sheep country, l Dairying had " stood to" the Auckland 3 province so far, and he did not think the i general conditions would be nearly so bad t' as in the purely pastoral country of the y best class. r e Fairly Good Demand for Houses. .. As to house property, he said the mare ket, though not so brisk as it was a few months ago. was fairly good, but buyers e were not able to. finance unless they had q sufficient money to pay the difference be- ,{ tween the price and the almost inevitable' s mortgage, and then, of course, they had e to be able to lay their hands on ,t their money. He mentioned the case it of one man who had arranged to n buy a house, but was not able to com- ' >- plete owing to his money being held on v deposit by an institution which was taking i- advantage of the new legislation. iHe ). added that he knew of only one firm which Is was not taking advantage of* the law.