HOUSE PROPERTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19298, 10 April 1926, Page 13

HOUSE PROPERTY.

MARKET FAIRLY QUIET. SLIGHT REVIVAL REPORTEDTHE RENT STANDARD FALLING. For tlie last two or three months the demand for house property lias been much below normal and there are a number of cases where speculative builders have had bungalows on their hands for some time. The past few weeks, however, have seen a little more movement not only in house property but also in sections, business in which lias been exceedingly quiet this summer in comparison with that of the past two or three years. Some inquiry lias also been made for farms'." The signs of a revival in property business have more or less synchronised with the ending of the financial year and land agents, to say nothing of lawyers, whose conveyancing has been limited, are hopeful that their business will be more steady and stable than it has been since the boom began. As a result of the great amount of building that has taken place in the past few years, the housing question is no longer a problem except perhaps to the improvident and unfortunate. Thanks to Government lending and the opportunity for people of low incomes to buy on a table system from speculative builders, many workers have escaped from the disadvantages of renting. There is not the former demand for flats in the outer suburbs —evidence that the suburban dweller is being better catered for with houses—and a phenomenal number of large oldfashioned houses are on the market. In regard to the modern type of housp the price standard is fixed more by situation and environment than by building costs. Although building costs have dropped considerably since the peak period, the increase in the value of sections in the better residential areas has been sufficient to maintain values. Some exceedingly high prices have been given recently for sections in good localities and the probabilities are that costly houses will be built upon them. Where new bungalows are "hanging j fire" is in newer districts, or in districts where a high residential standard is not yet fixed. Many of the unsold new | houses are standing idle, owners being ! too afraid of the danger of getting bad tenants to let them. While numbers of good houses are leased privately and satisfactorily, there is a type of tenantbad payers and destroyers of property—who has completed what legal restrictions began—the extinction of the protessional landlord. One prominent firm of land agents has not a single client who has built houses to lease. Thus the majority of houses to let are of an inferior class. " A good tenant," said an agent, "is the sort of man who prefers to own his home, and except for those who have married recently or who are faced with special circumstances, the majority of them have bought houses." The experience of this authority is that house rents are falling. Where a weekly rent of £3 and £3 10s could be obtained for a good family house a year ago, the price is asked in vain to-day. Cheaper houses are available, and the public is now more inclined to count the shillings than in the recent past.