HOUSES FOR RENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26451, 3 May 1947, Page 6

HOUSES FOR RENT

FEWER AVAILABLE

DEMAND GREATER THAN

EVER

RECENT DECREASE IN SALES

“ The housing situation in Dunedin has not improved over the past few months. Houses are at present in shorter supply, if anything, than they were before, and the demand appears to be greater,” said the president of the Dunedin branch of the Real Estate Institute, Mr R. M. Wilkie, in an interview witfi the Daily Times yesterday. He added that the clients of land and estate agents who desired to rent houses were prepared to accept anything within reason in the way of accommodation.

Where some years ago a house with a rental of £4 a week was difficult to let, it was now easy to find a tenant, he said. All types of houses, whatever the rental, were snapped up within a short period. Mr Wilkie said that there were few houses offering for sale at present. The reason for this was not particularly easy to find, but it was attributable in part to the fact that many prospective vendors considered that the provisions of the Land Sales Act were too strict. If an adjustment was made so that the vendors were permitted to gain prices higher than the 1942 valuation, less depreciation, more houses would probably be offered for sale.

Empty House Problem

Asked why a number of houses in Dunedin lay vacant for long periods, Mr Wilkie said a house might be vacant for six months while a vendor and purchaser settled differences of opinion over the sale price. A further time lag might occur before the transaction was disposed of by the Land Sales Court. In many cases, he added, the vendor of an empty house did not dare to create a tenancy by letting the purchaser have possession of the house while the sale was awaiting consideration by the Land Sales Court, because of the difficulty of obtaining possession again should the sale not be completed at the figure set down by the court.

When a house had been offered for sale, and the transfer had been before the court, but the vendor declined to complete the transaction owing to a reduction in price, another transfer of the same property could not be brought before the court for consideration within 12 months unless the sale was to a serviceman. This could result in the house remaining empty for that period. Illegal Practices Deplored

Mr Wilkie added that the Dunedin branch of the Real Estate Institute had not discovered any cases of attempts to avoid the provisions of the Land Sales Act by illegal payments, although cases had been reported from northern centres. In fact, he said, land and estate agents in the city had ordered vendors and purchasers out of their offices when they had had suspicions that illegal transfers of money had been made in respect to certain property sales.