BUYING A HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 289, 2 September 1919, Page 6

BUYING A HOUSE

BECAUSE ONE CANNOT RENT ONE REMARKABLE STATE OF PROPERTY MARKET

(By "Awonui.")

,£5 bonus will be paid to anyone providing mo with a suitable flve-roomed liouso. Bent or buy. "X.Y.Z." The foregoing is tho type of advertisement which has become familiar to Wellington readers during the past two years, but more commonly familiar within the Inst six months. It is the anguished cry of the houseless driven to worth of recklessness .in the hope —usually a very frail one—of raising the kipd of timber and glass structure he is after. Wellington has had its booms before—there was a notablo one between 1903-B—but it has never experienced such an apparently solid one as that which is attracting attention at the present, time. The return of so ninny thousands of soldiers means many marriages, and uo instead of "a little back rcom supplying the needs of the man who left New Zealand single, he finds himself on settling down in need of a four, five, or six-roomed house. Just as the woollen mills cannot turn out tho cloth qu'ck enough for the "civvy clothes of the men who are pouring back week (liter week, so there are not in ™ c ® enough houses for the need of Digge:: Benedicts. It does not follow that it is ii returned soldier buying every uite. That is a carious phase of the situation. People who have for years teen living quiet, stationary lives in tho one house have found it difficult to resist the tempting offers made them by homeseekers or their agents. In many cases they have yielded to temptation, fancying it to be a. simple matter to got a house elsewhere, only to iind themselves honseiess. Frequently they have to go into lodgings and live in .a state of discomfort they have nevojf previously in their lives had to submit to. Then when they do find a place suitable to their requirements it usually costs _them all they got for their old home and perhaps a little more. The house agents tell somo really :remarkable stories of their adventures in tho property jungle. "I* was trying to sell a- man a. n:ice place at Lyall Bay for J21100," said one agent. "Quite a nice place as things go, but he was not too keen. As he was inspecting the front premises, I said to him, 'Wait a few moments. I want to seO' this cottage over there!' 'Is it for sale too? 3 he asked. 'Yes, house and furniture,. XBSO. Come and have _ a look!' He looked, and within ten minutes had paid me a deposit." This agent said there was a brisk demand for property at Lyall Bay, and it looked as though Miraniar was at last to move ahead. A syndicate had acquired a block of 40 acres opposite the golf links, between the Seatoun Eoad and the AVellington Gas Company's property, a block, 'by the way, which includes a four-acre reserve for a State school. In this case no property was to be sold without a building covenant which would provide that the house erected must bo of approved design. - Cases are common where people have purchased houses and sold them again within a week (almost without seeing them or disturbing the tenant) at an increase of from .£IOO to X' 259. There ii a common custom on the part of pro-perty-owners in Wellington to give tho sale of their houses to several agents, which is all very well for the agents when business is slack, but when things are moving quickly it complicates things somewhat.

"I sold a place the other day at Haiuitai." explained an agent, "and knowing that soverol other agents had it, I grabbed the deposit, gave a receipt, then rushed to find the owner. You have to do it: or you may find; as has happened before, the property sold just ahead of vou. when you have to hand back tho deposit, and make a life-enemy of the man. who has already regarded the property as his own. Perhaps in the meantime he has informed his wife and family of his investment, and they, too. believe vou to bo it conscienceless ruffian. It's all in the day's york/"

Another auglo of the property business is the superior class of House in demand —oriel windows, tiled roof, shingled fronts, etc. People are keen on getting something a bit stylish, and are prepaj-eu to pay tor it. How- they manage to pay puzzles many, but it is usually 110 secret to the house agent, 'i'lio demand for the "nice" house is generally made bv people who have not suffered matiiriallv bv the*wot.' Sometimes they .are those who have done very well indeed out of the biir trouble. There are on recura cases where families have gone out to work—t-ho boys to war aud the girls to a Government Department, the result being that the home exchequer at the end of if, all was at high-water mark, and tlio monev has been olubbed together either to buv a new home or to pay a substantial deposit on account of the purcaase monev.

Previous booms lmv9 benefited the speculative builder, whose methods were to run ud a number of houses mid sell them on ft A2l) deposit, the rest in rciut. 'L'here is no counterpart of that system in the present boom. U'lic speculative builder i.v"non est'' or else lie is l.ow making pay as a jobbing carpenter (which is nearly us good a tiling), and houses are not being sold on a A'lo or A!! 0 deposit. . The amount is more generally ,42(10 or cKOO cash, which indicates that there is a more solid foundation to the present "boom" (lian in others, aud probability of a "burst" to lollow. Just an the above article was being completed a friend rang up to say that ho hod purchased a house in Hatailai "bv the skin of his teeth,". It seemed that he had looked over the place with his wife, and as they both agreed tha!; it was something like what was wanted, he had hurried off to the-agent. As the latter was writing n reccipt for the deposit there was a telephone ring. the acenfc listened, then said- -/'Sorry, place is ilist sold!" .. • "YV'hnts that? .. . Oh. ves. I don't mind asking lum. 1 es here now." "A gentleman offers you AIM on your bargain; anything doing?" friend had replied in the negative, it was a close shave.