REAL ESTATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23005, 7 October 1936, Page 5

REAL ESTATE

PAST YEAR REVIEWED AN UNSETTLED PERIOD ;;"The past year has been a somewhat disturbed one so far as the land agency business is concerned," said the chairman (Mr Douglas M. Spedding), when moving the, adoption of the report at the annual meeting of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Otago branch) yesterday. ■;'... " This is accounted for by several reasons," he continued, " the chief of which, perhaps, is the unsettled state of international affairs, which has undoubtedly had a most unsettling effect .on business generally. In spite of the efforts. of the League of Nations to .solve the serious world problems*.this unsettled state still continues, and. the outlodk in some" countries is far from, promising. In nearly every year When a. general election is held in the Dominion, business quietens down considerably, and the past year was no exception. When the election results in a change of Government the slacken-ing-off is often more marked, and this was perhaps more noticeable on this occasion as the policy of the new Government differed so drastically from that of its predecessors. "Much hew legislation has recently been passed which has a more or less direct bearing on the business of a land, agent and that of his clients. It is not my intention to criticise unduly any of these measures, as the time is yet too short to notice the full effect of their operation, and it is perhaps only fair to give them a fair trial before making any adverse criticism. It might not be out of place, however, to make a few comments on some of the measures which have a direct bearing on our business. Although the Fair Rents Bill may have many good points to commend it, some of the provisions are undoubtedly a great hardship to landlords and very much in favour of the tenants. With few exceptions, I think we will all agree that most of the landlords in Dunedin are fair-minded citizens, as proved by the manner in which they have met the conditions during the slump period. Many landlords 'have voluntarily reduced their rents to a figure much lower than that required by law, more especially when their tenants have been temporarily unemployed, and it is on these landlords that the ■ provisions of the Fair Rents Bill are unduly harsh, owing to the fixing of the standard rent without the circumstances of the case being fully investigated." If the proposed legislation with re§ard to mortgages became law. Mr peddihg said, the same hardship would apply in the case of mortgagees, many of whom in an endeavour to assist the mortgagor, had advanced a ; greater sum on ; mortgage than was perhaps prudent, and were now in danger of losing part of their capital . through a compulsory system of mortgage reduction. This, in his opinion, was introducing a system of repudiation which was neither equitable nor just and was a very undesirable practice to introduce either into business or politics. '. . .\ Another measure that had recently become law, the Shops and Offices Act, and its', Amendments, was one that was of vital'interest'and was causing much concern to members. The business of a" land agent was brie that differed in many respects from other businesses, i and the curtailment of office hours was bound to have serious and far-reach-ing effects and prove of great inconvenience to clients. If the full provisions of this Act were put into effect there was grave danger of many of the smaller firms being eventually forced out of business. During the past session there had been much talk of a Housing Bill being introduced in order to relieve the present shortage of houses, but the full details of this were not yet available It was satisfactory, however, to have the assurance of the Prime Minister that the localities of any housing scheme would be carefully selected instead of repeating the mistakes of the past by selecting unsuitable localities There was undoubtedly a great shortage of houses at the present time and very few places were available for Renting.