IMPROVED TRANSPORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 19

IMPROVED TRANSPORT.

NEW SUBURBAN GROWTH. ! ENCOURAGEMENT TO BUILD. CITY'S STEADY EXPANSION. DEVELOPMENT IN THE FUTURE. Transport plays a most important part in maintaining tho values of suburban property, and recent decisions of the Auckland Transport Board to extend its suburban tram services are already having a stimulating effect on the Auckland property market. The transport war of a few years back, with tho period of indecision which followed its cessation, was largely responsible for depreciating the values of many building sections. Now the tram routes are being extended, affording permanent means of cheap transport to the districts concerned, and the building sections are naturally increasing in value. At tho timo of the transport war, building sections were freely acquired in the districts beyond the Dominion Road and Mount Eden tram termini. Then came tho aftermath when transport was not all that could be desired and a definite halt was called. Many people who bought sections refrained from building on them and others offered on the market were notoriously difficult to sell. Transport Board's Plans. Now conditions are changing. Tho Transport Board has already extended its tramway system to Point Chevalier Hall on tho Great North Road and is now proceeding with the extension to Point Chevalier itself; it ' has extended the Remuera tracks to Meadowbank, giving access to some particularly fine house property, and tho Dominion Road tracks to tho Mount Albert-Onehunga Road, serving a very wide district. It also proposes to extend tho Mount Eden and Sandringham routes, opening up land adjoining that served by tho Dominion Road extension, and another proposal is to extend tho Mount Albert route to Avondalo. Ail this work is to be carried out within tho next 12 months.

An example of tho effect of improved transport on property values is provided in the caso of tho Point Chevalier district. It was not so very long ago, when houses at Point Chevalier were comparatively few and far between. Then came the proposal to serve the transpoit needs of *he district by trams' and thero was immediately a keen demand for building sections. Residents of Point Chevalier have had to wait some time for their tram service, but it is now on the verge of completion and tho district has become one of tho most popular residential suburbs. Tho district served by tho Meadowbank extension contains somo of tho finest residential sites in the city and property values are already on the increaso. The extensions to the Mount Eden, Dominion Road and Sandringham routes, mean that the dwellings of city workers will gradually creep closer and closer to tho shores of tho Manukau. The Mount ltoskill district is another of tho future residential districts of tho citj. Avondalo, too, connected with the heart of the city by tram, is also destined to increase in popularity with people looking for sites for their homes. The "Westfleld Deviation. Nor are tram extensions the only consideration. The new Westfield deviation has opened up a large tract of residential country and the provision of several stations on the route indicates that, here too, there are accepted possibilities of suburban growth. As a city, Auckland is growing every year and as it grows, property values in the city itself will becomo higher and higher and the outer suburbs will become more and more densoly populated. Tho whole life of tho city shows that this is a steady process. Within the last ten years, large areas have been rescued from blackbeiry and gorse, to be subdivided into sections for hundreds of homes. Not by any means has the saturation point yet been

reached. . Few cities in New Zealand aro so well equipped naturally for suburban growth as Auckland. This growth is taking place steadily and land values will increase in sympathy with it. Adequate transport services aro an important means to this end.