ARGENTINA TO SELL STATE-OWNED LAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 14 December 1949, Page 5

ARGENTINA TO SELL STATE-OWNED LAND

(By a Reuter correspondent in Buenos Aires). The Argentine Government has drawn up plans to sell thousands of lots of State-owned land to the public soon. This is part of a plan to halt t he feverish speculation in land which aas been one of the features of the inflation in Argentina during the past few years. Announcement of the Government’s intentions has already slowed down speculation and real estate prices have slumped. Even in some of the best residential areas of Buenos Aires losses of 30 to 50 per cent, over a period of only a month or two have not been uncommon. In addition to a desire to curb speculation, the Government, in planning to sell Stateowned lands, is seeking a new source of revenue. It is officially estimated that the scheme will raise some £A3OOM to £A37OM which can be used to pay off some of the Government's debts. Most of the land to be offered for sale is at present lying idle, having formerly belonged to the British railways in Argentina. With the sale of the railways, it passed into the hands of the Government with all the rest ot the railway properties. The British Railways cost the Argentine Government the equivalent of approximately l A3OOM so that if the land sales bring in the estimated £A3OOM to £A37OM the natiinalisation of the railways will have cost the State nothing—except for a drain of cibout £l5O million on its limited exchange reserves. Real estates experts, however, are not optimistic. They stress that it will in any case take years to dispose of all the property which is to be sold.