REAL ESTATE IN AUCKLAND.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1945, 31 December 1913, Page 8

REAL ESTATE IN AUCKLAND.

, - - THE YEAR REVIEWED. '. (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent) Auckland, December 30. Inquiries made regarding the past year's business in house and land property revealed a somewhat unusual position. ■ Several gentlemen seen were very emphatic that values all round have been well maintained, but at tlio same timo thero had been fewer transactions. This was attributed to the fact that at tho beginning of tho year the tightness of tlio money market and consequent advance in interest to bo paid otj mortgages militated against transactions in property. Towards August, however, a revival set in, but it had not lasted loni* when the striko upset everything. Whether it is duo to tlio fact that values for City properties aro high cannot bo stated, but there is no doubt that comparatively few transactions have occurred in 1913. As far as land and buildings in tho main streets are concerned the representative of one big firm remarked that, whereas ill 1912 two-thirds of their transactions had been in City property this year tho reverse was tlie case, tho bulk of sales being country properties. One singular feature of the property market this year is that the largest sales appear to have been Mn what was onco known as the "Poor North." An area of 10,000 acres near Dargavilio was transferred for £00,000, and another block of 30,000 acres on the other sido of the samo town was sold for £54,000. Then, too, tho Yates property at Parengarenga was taken over by a syndicate by whom*it is proposed to be worked and settled. Another fair-sized sale of country land ; was that of a stud sheep farm at Maungatawliiri which was transferred at £25,000.