DEARTH OF HOUSES.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 30 January 1920, Page 4

DEARTH OF HOUSES.

Four or. five years ago (says the, 1 Christchurch correspondent of an ex-' change) property agents were up early every morning hunting for buyers.; Nowadays they often miss breakfast in the hope of landing a house whose owner wishes to sell. In'Christchurch there is hardly a house to let at any price. “Here’s a lettejr"from the south just in,” said a land salesman. “A lady coming here to live wishes to rent a four or five-roomed house, all conveniences, handy to the .Square. .She hasn’t a chance. We cannot get them at any figure. In the days before August, 191-1, it was usual to sell a house on the' instalment plan—£so down, and the balance as rent under a sale and purchase agreement. That’s a thing of the past. The buyer non pays a third of the purchase money, and the agency arranges about the rest on a firsi mortgage. The presence of the cash buyer has brought about a change. There are any amount of buyers about. The difficulty is to get the houses to sell. The main reasons arc flic general prosperity of the country and the fact that the business man who previously preferred to rent and to have his capital invested in his lnisi ness, lias come to realise that a home is essential, and.that the only way to own it is to buy it.”