CITY EXPANSION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9024, 3 September 1907, Page 1

CITY EXPANSION.

THE GROWTH OF SUBURBIA. Christchurch is expanding rapidly, and if the population is not increasing visibly, at feast tie dwelling-houses of the city, and especially the suburbs, are making almost £t mushroom grow*th. Various reasons are assigned tor the fact, and the most ingenious is that the young men are marrying off quickly, and in the present prosperous state of the province, and with the prevailing cheapness of money, demand nothing less than a little home of their owti. " The tendency is to get into new districts," said a leading land and property agent to . a " Lyttelton Times " representative yesterday. "The electric trams nave certainly opened up Christchurch, while the centre of . the [ city is so crowded with old houses, in many cases riddled with dry rot, that the people naturally prefer to' get something \ clean and new and fresh, j when they can get it for the same figure, That they can do by going into the suburbs." The old houses, he continued, were in -many cases returning good interest, and the owners were not anxious to shift them, but it was quite time that the City- Council stepped in and condemned some ! of them. Whatever the cause may be, Christchurch is steadily working towards the suburbs. To . get a j place of his own a young man must go to the suburbs. As the result of some inquiries made yesterday a reporter was told that St Albans, x northeast and north-west, and on iboth sides of Papanui Road particularly, was developing wonderfully, and during the | last twelve months more property had changed hands there than in the Test of Ghristchurch. . "It is a most dim- ] cult thing to finance 'a ..man on a small deposit," said an agent, "and give him a fair deal. A man wants a £550 property, which 1 " is at present bringing in in rent 17s a week, and io, wants it for £25 down and los a week rent, i We 6>eiid him away, but somebody will ! get him, and at -%e end of twelve I months it will be Hard to say who owne ! the property, he or the landlord." For the would-be owner the selection of a section as probably the first step. The price depends entirely on locality, and it is very difficult to get a good section to-dey "within the penny section" under £200. In the favoured parts of Bt Albans the quarter-acre section is bringing £250 even as far as two miles from the Post Office. In other parts, however, .the quarter-acre ranges near £100. _ The cost of building. is' naturally variable', but an ingenious formula was supplied by a builder: "Multiply the length by the breadth in feet, lie said, "and multiply the product by six, and then divide by twenty to get pounds." A five-roomed square cottage is usually about 30 by 35ft, and a ishort calculation runs tne price out to £315. To this, however, about 10 per cent must j be added, and the price reaches about £350. A really well-built house can be erected for less than £100 a room, but a good deal depends on the plans. One agent said that he had submitted plans for a five-roomed house to several builders, and the prices quoted had run from £550 to £760. The quotations had been for the. same quality of building, but had varied owing to the fact -that the plans < had been prepared bv an English architect, and were slightly off the ordinary lines, and therefore deceived some of the builders. There are several outside expenses that could be covered in th^ estimate of £100 a room, and they aTe laying out of gardens about £15, gas fittings £10, and fencing about £15. Some instances of the prices of houses were supplied to the reporter. In one case it was stated that a four-roomed house on three-sixteenths of an acre m Linwood had been offered for £410 f The section had cost £90, commission, was £20, and the house was thereforef valued at £300. The builder, after making wages, had reckoned to make a profit of £60, so that the house could not have co6t more than £270. The rate of interest today on first mortgage is 5J per cent, up to about two4hirds of the value of the property, and second mortgage costs 8 per cent. To a man who wishes to pay £25 down on a £625 property, and pay the balance as rent, the process would take about eighteen, years. "For the last nine months," said a Christchurch land agent, " we agents have heard nothing but the parrot cry that properties would be given away after the Exhibition, but i nave never met the man yet who was prepared to give his property away. I find that there is a a per cent increase on pro>perty, which is, if anything, higher today than it was twelve months ago, when property was at its highest Exhibition value. There is a great demand for sections in all parts of the suburbs, but they are becoming^ fewer every day. To-day the man with sufficient money to buy a £300 property wants to buy a £500 property, and the man with £500 wants a property for £700 or £800. Times have been prosperous and thev are wilEng to take more risks. Cheap money is everything, and if the money market hardened in Christchurch soon there would be a great many heavy burdens to bear." , - ;