CONTINUAL FALL OF RENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 9

CONTINUAL FALL OF RENTS

“ROCK BOTTOM” AT AUCKLAND. DECLINES OF 40 PER CENT. (By Wire —Special to News.) Auckland, Last Night. •Auckland land agents report a continued fall in house and office rents, which have reached their lowest level since the war. Several .agents stated to-day that rents for suburban homes have dropped 20 to 30 per cent, during the past three or four years. “Our experience would show that 30 per cent, is conservative,” remarked a representative of a city firm which does an extensive business in city and suburban properties. “It is much more like 40 per cent. I could mention scores of such cases. “For instance, a house in Ponsonby which has been on our books for many years was fetching £2 10s in 1924; today it has been let for 27s 6d. Another house in the same district was let for £2 12s four years ago and now earns only 30s. Houses in Epsom which we let for £2 to £3 a few years ago are let for 20s to-day and the owners are glad to get it. “The history of the one house is the history of the whole property market. There is a serious slump in house property.” . . . . . The position was the same with regard to city offices, he added. Landlords were faced with heavy financial loss if they failed to take heed of the prevailing tendency. “The premises we occupy are our own and were built a few years ago,” he said, “so we can confer the type of modern business office which I take it is the kind of accommodation most firms demand. To-day, unlike many other landlords, we are in the fortunate position of having every office in the building occupied, but I can assure you that ha's been accomplished only by very substantial reductions in the rent we were asking at first. “It is my own opinion that rents have reached rock bottom,” he said. “Owners of property are already not earning interest on their money, and when that is the ease it is extremely unlikely that rents will go much further.”