KIWIS WELCOMED RELAXATION OF SALE CONTROLS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 74, 26 July 1950, Page 5

KIWIS WELCOMED RELAXATION OF SALE CONTROLS

(Special to Beocon) AUCKLAND, last night. One of the most important developments in rehabilitation has been the partial relaxation of Land Sales controls, declared the Dominion President, Mr J. Nigel Wilson, L.L.8., at the annual confer-

ence of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association, which opened this afternoon. Freehold property, other than farm lands, were decontrolled last February and there were strong indications that the Government intend to remove the remaining controls by legislation during the pre-

sent session. “The immediate effect of freeing houses from these controls,” said Mr Wilson, “that vacant properties rose in price on the average, about--50 per cent—a sad blow to Kiwis

hoping to buy homes, instead of building.” The true picture is, however, not quite as bad as this general statement suggests and the president said he offered the following points as some consolation:— • 1. The greatest increase in price occurred in “luxury homes” which

are beyond the reach of Kiwis, anyway, and .simple, utilitarian homes such as we seek have not shown any great rise in price. 2. Removal of controls has certainly resulted in very many more houses coming on the market and this must have its effect in keeping prices down. 3. Purchasers of the humbler types of homes are very seldom able to find the whole price, or even a substantial part of it, in cash from their own resources, while lenders tend to base their advances on the old Land Sales value. This again will tend to hold prices for these houses down.

4. Owing to the prevalence of “under the table” payments during the period of control, it is very doubtful whether the price paid today is very much greater than the actual price paid then. Summed up, the position seems to be, as far as possible homes for Kiwis are concerned, that very many more are offering and prices have a tendency to settle below the “black market?’ prices, Mr Wilson concluded. The Government stabilisation measures would assist this tendency by draining off surplus money.