WELLINGTON CITY LEASES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2435, 14 April 1915, Page 6

WELLINGTON CITY LEASES

VALUATION COMMISSION'S REPORT. Referring to Wellington City leases the report of the Land Valuation Commission has the following to say:— "Wellington witnesses expressed the opinion that certain properties situate in the. City must have been overvalued at the recent valuation on the ground that since the previous valuation of 1906 rents in the business parts of the Citv had declined, while the cost of building had increased. The witnesses generally on this point argued that productivity should be the basis. of valuation. The question, however, on what basis lands should be valued for land tax, local rates, and other assessments is not a matter that has been referred to us. The statute speaks of the selling value, and it is quite possible that the market price of land in a town may be above its value, based strictly upon productivity. The witnesses who spoke on this subject referred largely to the oase of leasehold properties held under the City Corporation, but two of such witnesses admitted that they did not know of any sales of freehold property in the city that had been effected below tho Government valuation, one of such witnesses (a large city property-holder) adding that he knew or a great mdny sales that had been made round about the Government valuations, but that the present owners had found that they could not make a profit at the'prices they bad paid. Tho witness, in terms, complained of the legislation, and not of the administration thereof by the Department. The "Valuer-General, in his memorandum to which we have before referred, enjoins the valuers 'not to strain after high values, nor accept isolated "boom" prices, nor values involved in oxclianges of land as o standard of value, but to determine the value neither above nor below the fair selling value, in view of the many and diverse purposes for which the values are used.' "