LIVELY PROPERTY MARKET

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 116, 2 February 1918, Page 10

LIVELY PROPERTY MARKET

"BEST FOR TEN YEARS." "The property market in Wellington lias not been so good for ten years lis it is at present," said a well-known house and estate agent to a Dominion reporter yesterday. He went 011 to say that during the past year business was excellent from tne agent's point of view, which means lively buying and Ee'ling, and that the sales during January far exceeded those for January of twelve months ago. Values had never receded one jot since tile outbreak of war, and instead of easing, as Was thought likely, they were higher now than over, and the demand was still unabated.

"Without any exaggeration," - said the agent, "I can say that the difficulty i 3 not to find buyers, but to secure tho properties for them, I don't say that extends to business premises in the city, but it certainly does to residential sites almost anywhere, and small farms in the .district. The suburban districts most affected have been Lyall Bay, Hataitai, Kelburn, and Wadestown. At the last-named suburb—one of the oldest in Wellington —properties were moving now that had lain dormant for a great many years. The trams and the settlement of Highland Park (the Rhodes estate) had brought Wadestown under notice, and there was 'something doing' now 011 the other sido of the hill, where there were 110 harbour views from the front hay windows. People had never ceased to* buy and build at Lyall Bay since tho war, and ■ the isthmus between Lyall and Evans Bays was rapidly becoming an independent town. Building was also very active in Kilbirnie South, towards the Miramar boundary, and in Hataitai. The aspcct of that part of the last-named suburb near the tunnel had completely changed in the last two years, 'and settlement was creeping higher up the hills towards Mount Victoria. There was still a marked dearth of four, five, and six-roomed houses in most of the growing suburbs."