REAL ESTATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1925, Page 11

REAL ESTATE.

PROPERTY MARKET BRISK. SECTIONS WITH HOUSES WANTED. “Business in house properties in New Plymouth is fairly brisk,” a land agent told a Daily News reporter yesterday when discussing the real estate market, so far as it concerned house and business premises building. The demand, the agent said, was chiefly for sections on which houses had been built, and this had led to a lot of speculative building. In the majority of cases the deposits paid were comparatively small, ranging from £5O to £l5O and £2OO. His experience was that people were more and more realising the folly of merely paying rent all their lives and were finding it better, to invest their small savings in a house, the transaction ensuring that they would always have a roof over their heads. While ready built houses found the best market, sections suitable for residential sites were also selling fairly freely. As a rule these were bought right out, the purchasers using their equity in the sections to assist them in financing the erection of a house. In such cases, the procedure usually followed was that the house builder would arrange a first mortgage over the now house and section, the capital advanced being paid to the builder. The builder in turn would leave a portion of his profit on at second mortgage with the stipulation that the capital sum be reduced at the rate of about ten shillings a week. There was nothing doing in business sites in Devon Street, the agent added, for the simple reason that there were none for sale. Most of this property, he explained, was held by old families or by trustees on behalf of the beneficiaries under wills, and it was very seldom that any of it came on the market, the holders finding that they had an assured income from the rent, paid bv tenants and lessees.

MODERN MUSIC WAREHOUSE

FOUR STOREYS IN HEIGHT. COLLIER AND CO.’S NEW BUILDING. The new building which is being designed for Messrs. H. Collier and Co. in Devon Street Central will be as conspicuous a landmark as the New Zealand Insurance Company’s premises which it, will rival in height. It will be four storeys in height above the ground level, Messrs. Collier’s business of musical instrument importers making it more advisable to have an extra storey up in the sunshine, as it were, rather than to have a basement where there is a risk of damp. An examination of the plans of the new building yesterday brought to mind some of the most modern music warehouses in the Dominion, and particularly the Bristol Company’s lofty premises in Dunedin, which even in that city of handsome and ornate business premises, are conspicuous. The frontage to Devon Street will be 20 feet 6 inches, and the depth from front to rear will be 51 feet 6 inches. For the front, the architect (Mr. T. 11. Bates) has ehosen the modern style with long running lines suggesting the height the building will be, also its solidity and stability. The ground floor has been designed to meet the needs of an up-to-date music shop. Two large plate glass windows flanking a set-back entrance door will be available for the display of gramaphones, the latest records and music or pianos and other musical instruments. Inside will be something new to New Plymouth m the form of two glassed-in “silent” rooms, wherein customers will be able to choose gramaphone records with comfort and without being disturbed by the distressing noises of the bustle of a busy town. Also on this floor will be the music and song display stands and counters and the company’s offices. The floor above, to which access will be obtained by a fine wide ornamental staircase, will be used as a musical instrument room. With its prettily grained panelled walls the whole of this floor will be in keeping with the instruments it contains. The two upper storeys will be used as storerooms. The building is to be constructed of ferro-concrete with steel frame windows of which there will be plenty, ensuring, a full measure of natural light. It is expected that tenders will be called in a'bout ten days’ time.

CONVENIENCE AND UTILITY.

WINE AND SPIRIT WAREHOUSE. GOLDWATER BROS.’ NEW PREMISES Replete with every convenience for carrying on a progressive business as wine and spirit merchants, Goldwater Bros.’ new building in Powderham Street is a substantial addition to the business area of New Plymouth. The building, which in round figures cost £4500, is now being used by the owners although one or two carpenters are still busy putting on the finishing touches to some of the fittings. 'While it is four storeys in height the warehouse, by reason of the configuration of the land, does not suggest the height which one might reasonably assume from that fact. Powderham Street is carried over the Huatoki Stream an an embankment, and it Is against the side of this embankment below the level of Powderham Street " that two storeys are situated. From the rear, however, at the foot of Currie Lane, and from the sides the full four storeys are visible, and here are plenty of windows letting in daylight which one would expect to be absent when vidwing the building from the front. Convenience has been the keynote in the lay-out of the warehouse. On the bottom floor, for instance, a covered-in loading dock allows lorries to back right into the building to load and unload heavy goods, and an electric lift is close handy to carry them to the upper floors. This floor’ is also used as a beer and stout cellar and as a bottlewashing department, a feature of which is the big expanse of drying racks for the cleaned bottles. On the second floor is the customs bond capable of holding 200 tons of goods, the remainder of the floor being used as a beer store. The third floor, on a level with Powderham Street, contains the public and private offices, which are handsomely furnished in oiled rimu panelling, and also the duty paid wine and spirit stores. The top floor is also used as a store. The building has been erected in ferro-concrete with steel frame windows, the supporting columns and girders carrying the upper floors, which are of timber, being of steel. The bottom floor is of concrete and the remainder are of timber, the staircase being of similar material. Mr. T. H. Bates was the. architect, F. D. Payne Ltd. the builders,"' and Smart Bros, the-sub-contractors tor the electric fittings and plumbing work, while Messrs. J. Nixon and Co. installed the electric lift. AUSTRALIAN HOMES. COMPANY IN LIQUIDATION. Months ago the thousands of workers who had been purchasing homes on the instalment plan from the Australian Homes Proprietary, Ltd., received the information that all was not well with the financial affairs of the company, and immediately endeavoured to regain their money (states the Age). In all eases they failed, and the company went into liquidation. A meeting of the ; persons interested was held in the Temperance Hall, and the accommodation was taxed to the utmost. It was then found that the books were in a shocking state, and that no accurate statement could be presented. Since that date, Messrs E. L. Barrett and W. Simpson, joint liquidators, have had a statement prepared, and this has now been circulated to creditors. It intimates that the company’s interests in properties amount to £24,559, and that there is a surplus of £3539. The latter amount, however, is on paper only, and as it should take time before the land can be sold and the cash lodged at the bank, it should be six months before any money is returned. To the persons concerned, the pleasing feature of the announcement is that some dividend should be paid by the end of the year, for at the previous meeting the statement was made that creditors might have to wait for thirteen years before they could hope to recover their money. The “statement of affairs” as issued by the liquidators, which is not easily understood by hundreds of the creditors, contains the information that the total property bought by the company cost £108.745. First mortgages . of £68,1)60 and second mortgages of £9OOO reduce the £108,745 to £Bl,O-35, but there is still a sum of £6496 to be deducted, that amount representing the principal repaid by clients and the amount the properties are over-mort-gaged. Thus the company’s claim on the properties bought amount to £24,.359. Under the heading of liabilities,

it is shown that the sum of £17,605 is owing to the unsecured creditors for fees. A VAST PROJECT. While the Government and various local bodies in New Zealand consider i they are undertaking something worth while when they start out on a scheme which has for its object the erection of perhaps 100 houses, there is a movement in England whereby builders and architects are aiming to erect 2,500,000 in the next 15 years. The immense size of the contract suggests that about one-quarter of the present population of the United Kingdom require housing accommodation, and no doubt those people who are acquainted with the slums ■ of the Old Country will be prepared to believe this. Before the war a scheme to construct two and a half million houses would have been unthinkable, but it is not so now, and we are inclined to think in big figures. It is proposed that the loans for the construction of the houses shall be spread over a period of sixty years, and apparently the loans are to be raised by the Government. The Town Planning Commission has the scheme under consideration. It is not clear from the matter published in the English newspapers whether the houses, if the scheme is carried out, are to be sold or merely rented to the people, but the chances are that it will be a tenancy occupation which is the common -rule in England.

ARCHITECTURE AND MASS PRODUCTION.

One of the complaints levelled against mass production is that it does not, or has not, offered sufficient scope for architectural design. It is held that wherever the Government or any local body has gone in for a scheme of house building the houses have been grouped together and invariably have been of one design. A case in point is the row of workers’ homes built by the Auckland City Council at Grey Lynn near the zoo. Similar complaint is being levelled at architects and builders in England, but seeing that the houses are to be erected at a cost of £340 each, the majority of tenants will be prepared to forget the design. No doubt New Zealanders would, too, if they could get houses built for £340. Old Aucklanders will relate how they could years ago get houses rent free — the owner was satisfied if he haff somebody living in a house just to look after it. That may have been so years ago, but not now, and to-day it costs as much to build a couple of rooms as it did to put up a four or five-roomed house in the early days. And we must not forget people now want something different. No matter how attractive the design may be it will not suit all, airtl the man or woman having a home built to-day wants something “just a little different?’ from his or her neighbour. Perhaps it is as well, because to see street after street with rows of houses all similar in design would be rather monotonous. WHILE YOU WAIT! While the housing problem appears to be general the world over nowhere has the question been given greater consideration .than in England, and though numerous suggestions have been made, and often acted upon, it might be said the various committees which have the problem in hand are still experimenting; Wood, stone, concrete and steel have received attention, houses have been erected wholly or perhaps partly of any one'of the materials mentioned, but the people are still clamouring for accommodation —at a reasonable rental of course —and the solution of the difficulty is apparently not getting any nearer. Demonstrations there have been many, and recently a modern bungalow of steel, concrete and wood was built in 24 hours.- At nine o’clock one morning there was a va'cant site iti Tooting High Street 1 and 44 hours later a bungalow, tiled and windowed, but not finished internally, occupied the spot. The achievement, though new to England, is only in keeping with tlii system of house 'building popular in Canada, America' and South Africa. ■ : u ' - 1 ■ ■ ■ ■' -i BUILDING IN WELLINGTON. i The report of flic building stlperia-f tendent Mr. R. F; Drummond) to tljei Wellington ’Citj’ 'Cottneil iK brief form the various classes of "buildings for which permits were issued during the financial year ended March 31, and gives as the total value of buildings represented by these permits £1,060,137. The figure is not a record, the total fot;

the previous financial year being £1,361,584. Except in the caees of Miramar and Wadestown districts, there has been rather a marked falling-away in the number of dwellings erected in the year 1924-26, as compared with 11123-24. Miramar was apparently the most popular house-building district of the year. PRODUCTION OF BRICKS. The familiar charge brought against the British bricklayer of laying only 300 bricks a day now, compared with 800 before the war, was answered somewhat effectively by Mr. Richard Coppock, secretary of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives, at the National Housing Conference. Mr. Coppock quoted no less an authority than Sir Kingsley Wood, Under-Secretary of State for Health, for the statement that there were more bricks used and more houses built in Britain last year than ip any of the ten years previously, also that there were fewer bricklayers now than there had been for fwentyfive years. He left it to his critics to square these facts. with their allegation that the amount of work done by the individual bricklayer had declined. A written reply given by Mr. Neville Chamberlain to a question asked him in the House of Commons supports Mr. Coppock’s argument. It estimates the annual production of bricks in Britain at 5,000,000,000 at present, compared with 2,805,000,000 for the three years prior to the war.