TO LET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 93, 21 April 1911, Page 7

TO LET.

EMPTY HOUSES IN WELLINGTON NOT/ MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED. 'A REPORT CONTROVERTED. Wellington people are apathetic about the reputation of their city. They aro not, like the inhabitants of other centres, whole-hearted local patriots, quick and keen to resent any reflection) however alight, on the good name and fame of 'their city, be it for municipal government, business prosperity, public health, ( or any other attribute of civic life. Tell the average business man in Wellington streets — " They *are spying in Auckland that Wellington is done ; there are 1400 empty houses in the ci^.y"— he will, "if he is one type of Wellingtonian, cut you short with, "Rot, I'm too busy to discuss nonsense like that ; let 'em talk." Another type, and an inferior citizen, will accept the statement without the least demur. If you told him 2000 or 3000 empty housee, it would beall the sume. He' would swallow it and never take the trouble to ascertain the facts. He would even pass the story on to the stranger. in a word, the typical citizen of Wellington is too biusy, minding his own busings and making 1 money;, to mind the general business o£ the city. He is too much engrossed ; doing things to talk. A STRANGER'S EXPERIENCE. _ Now this is all very welj, but the time m)iy come when his-statements and false reports may do liarm to a city as they do to an individual. People begin to believe that there is something in &, after all. Then it is time to put the correct position before tho public. Ta.ke> •this statement : that there are 1400 empty houses in "Wellington to-day. A leading oflicer in one oi the large mercantile concerns of this country wae recently transferred to Wellington from Dunedin. Ho came up full of the idea that the land agents here would pursue him as soon as they knew he was in town, in order to present Uim with a house almost rent free. Those " 1400 empty housee in Wellington ' ' — he had seen it in a Dunedin paper — surely there I was one waiting for him. He wanted a six or seven-roomed house, and ho wanted the best value for tha money. . What, was his experience? Ho had to , keep his wife and family in a private hotel for a fortnight, while he scoured tho town, with the help of every reputable land agent in the place. It was a sad disillusionment for the canny Scot. Instead of a mansion in the ciity for practically nothing, he had to be content with a modesi house beyond the other end of that much-abused tube through Mount Victoria. And the rent? Thirty shillings a week. That man does not say anything about the noble vacant " fourteen hundred " now, but he won- » ders how such a statement was ever <■ allowed 1 to go uncontradicted. That is i uot the way in Dunedin. l THOROUGH INVESTIGATION. It was the recital of just such an ex- > perience of a stranger coming to settle here that prompted a representative ofThe Evening Post to go fully into the subject to ascertain the true state of things. He was well aware there had been a number of houses to let in Wellington some monlhs ago, but he had not been impressed that there Were particularly many or that there was any very severe depression. Still, it was as ■ well to find out. So, in company with an ©nergetio land-agent, he spent two solid days travelling about the city and suburbs on foot and in tram-cars looking ' for empty houses. . Every part of the f city and suburbs was covered, from ; Island Bay to Thorndon and from re-~ moter Karori to Seatoun and Karaka Bay. The total distance covered must have been well . over fifty miles. In additiou, the offices of the eight leading land-agents were visited, and an inspection and enumeration of their lists of houses to let was kindly permitted by these gentlemen. There was the , utmost frankness and straightforwardness throughout. Then building statistics, covering the new dwellings erected during the last twelve months, were obtained from the authorities at the City Council offices. The population of Wellington according to the recent census was not yet available. By a comparison with such statistics as it has been possible to obtain of previous years, one may arrive at a reasonably clear idea of the position of the city as regards its present prosperity, and as regards the allegation that it numbers over a thousand vacant houses. Space permits today the publication only of bare facts and figures. The question will be treated in its broader aspects in later articles. GOOD HOUSES SCARCE. The first salient fact is that at the outside there are not more than 200 houses vacant at the present time in the wholo of Wellington and its suburbs and the neighbouring boroughs of Miramar and Karori. Tho tour of personal investigation round the streets did not produce n. hundred "To Lets." Six of \he agents c6uld not produce between them more than 100 different "To Lets," as many houses were in the hands of several agents at one time. One agent, with, a rent-roll of £60,000 a year, had not a score of houses on his "To Let" list; another, with last year's rent-voll of £26,000, could only find one sevenroomed house in Newto-wn, two sixroomed houses ir the city, and on€) four-roomed house again in Newtown, but of 56 houses under his own control he had only one empty. He had jnly 18 houses on his list at all. These two agents aro undoubtedly the two chief house people in Wellington To the question, "Have you any five, six, or seven-roomed houses vacant in the city?" the answer was almost invariably "No," or, if in the affirmative, it was explained that in some cases there were disadvantages. PARTICULAR LOCALITIES. A count was taken of the* various empty houses by your representative in the different parts- of tho city and suburbs. It doe's not pretend to be exhaustive, as it would take weeks 1 to inspect every street in a city of over 70,000 inhabitants. The figures must be taken as what was seen in two days from, tops of cars, hillsides, and in various trans-suburban tramps. Ishuid Bay, the horl-ible example o^ the " boom," according to external critics in other centres, numbers about twenty-five vacant houses. Some are of the unlettable kind, and others are just vacant for a few daye. as is the feature of a shifting population like that of Wellington. One large firm interested in Island Bay to the extent of 116 houses has only five to let at the present. It has bttilt twelve new houses in the past six months. In Berhampore, that la between Duppaetreet and Newtown, not' more thin a dozen "To Let's" w-ere visible. There are two houses vacant on. Mount Victoria, one at RoSeneath, and two at Hataitai. Kilbirnie North has only one appaaxmtly, and Maranui and Kilbirnie South nothing but a five-bunk whare at Lyall Bay. In Miramar there are twenty houses- to let, though a few weeks ago there were only three. The stoppage in the municipal drainage works through the non-arrival of certain material is the cause of that. Alone <the Sestaun and Ka£akaK.Bay mad ihare arp not mor*>-#M«t.haJ* a dozen place?

\vacant, and most of these are summer whares. On the other side of the city, Kvelburne has four houses, and it 6 entension about ten. Northland has, about a dozen houses vacant, two at least />f which have never been let. *'In Karori there was one house empty, as it was being pulled ' down, it (Tould hardly be said to be "To Let." seems to be equally free from, '^he plague of emptiness. These figures, .of course, do not pretend to cover every house, in the whole city • and suburbs, but, when for the others an •allowance is made by more than jdoabling the number actually ascertained, *at -wilt be 'admitted that 200 is a liberal iestimate of the total number of empty dwellings in -Wellington and its sab"urb& BUILDING -STATISTICS. * The building statistics do not show jany depression during the municipal year just over. Three years ago the^' number of dw-ellinghouses in the area'^i review was just about 12,000. /Today the actual figures supplied by thet •)City Council from its records are 13,054.^ vThe following are the -figures for the dwellings erected in the city and sub--, urbs for the three municipal periods :— 4908-1909, 1909-1910, 1910-1911, the year .commencing on Ist April and ending on ~the 31st March :—: — 1908-9. 1909-10. 1910-11. Alelrose- ..; 263 258 • City ... 144 80 129 jiNorthlaud ... 24 21 19 '.Wadestown ... 15 21 6 '"These figures represent not the total ■number of permits issued by the City -•Council, but the actual number of dwelShighouses only erected. ; The total value of the building work fov which permits were issued in the Jezme periods was : — '- City — 1908-9, £291,305; 1909-10, ;i8232,506 ; 1910-11 ; £202,199 10s. . Melrose (in the respective periods) — ■ £132,667, £119,264 £127,422 10s. Northland— £l2,s92, £10.749. £10,174. Wadestown— £499o, £4330, £3607. it wil be seen, therefore, that building jprogress has been quite steady during -the last three yeaTs, and there has during the last six months been a decided improvement. * - It is impossible in the space to deal•■rsX length and adequately with so imjportant a subject. Other and broader ■aspects will be treated later.