City Property

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 399, 6 July 1928, Page 7

City Property

SIGNS OF REVIVING VIGOUR ALTHOUGH extreme caution, for some time, has marked the transactions of those dealing in city property a steady flow of business has been sustained throughout the past two years. Lately comparatively little activity in the purchase "and sale of business properties in Auckland has been recorded. This is regarded in commercial circles as the inevitable calm before a storm of renewed vigour in industrial development. Those sales recorded recently indicate steadily appreciating values.

XJECORDS show clearly that city development acts and reacts in sympathy with the comparative popularity of particular areas, though in the chief business centre of Auckland the congestion is so intense that discrimination in prices is difficult to assess with any accuracy.

High figures always will be com-manded-for properties in certain quarters, and owners, realising this, simply remain firm and hold, while the prospective investor refrains from speculation in anything but .gilt-edged stock. In the main, no bargains are offering in Queen Street and adjacent commercial localities.

It is significant, in the light of the intense development, that one-third of the rateable value of the city is embraced within a half-mile radius of the

Post Office. Prior to the amalgamation with Tamaki and Orakei, the valuation of the city was £2,464,079; the inclusion of these two districts has added £90,000 to the aggregate. A recent sale of business property in Newmarket of £530 a foot, and two others approximating respectively £24,000 and £32,000, are indicative of the stability of the suburban borough; and although the same buoyancy in values is not enjoyed by every outlying district, very little easement from stable figures is discernible. The record price of £1,636 a foot

for a Queen Street property which changed hands recently was exceptional, the usual level of transactions in the city's chief commercial centre ranging in the vicinity of £1,200 a foot. As one leaves Queen Street and works outward in an ever widening circle, values fall in steep gradation, as sales in Shortland Street, Anzac Avenue and other places will show. Shortland Street has secured several good sales, £670 a foot having been paid on the flat, and £l5O a foot on the grade. In Anzac Avenue properties which in 1923 realised £3O a foot cannot be bought to-day for less than £7O a foot, and in the lower portion of tbte avenue over £IOO a foot is paid. The business in Upper Queen Street will be stimulated by theatre building activity, and by the ultimate disentanglement of Civic Square intricacies. This land must be leased eventually and property values will appreciate in sympathy. (fAITH IN THE FUTURE As soon as the fabric of the new ! railway station appears above ground. lit is considered that the Beach Road area will spring into popuI larity, and owners of premises may expect a corresponding reward ! for having clung to their holdings till prosperity visited the locality. | It is true that the office accommodation in the city is more than sufficient to meet existing requirements, and when the present construction jobs' are completed, there should be premises enough to provide every modest business man in the pity with an 1 office of reasonable modernity. On the other hand, the general building activity is proof of Auckland's commercial progress, and indicates the ! faith —backed by the substantial argument of finance —which investors possess in the city’s future. Endeavours are being made to attract capital from overseas, and a scheme of propaganda. showing in comprehensive panorama the industrial potentialities of Auckland, has already produced gratifying results. Several overseas firms have established themselves here during the past •year; others are negotiating at the moment for suitable premises. INEVITABLE CYCLES In recent months warehouse properties in some quarters have not been in demand, due mainly to the pendulum of business swinging in the favour of the direct-importing emporium. As the Inherent optimism of the Aucklander breaks through the crust of recent depression and reveals the unmistakable brightness of the industrial outlook, the tight money market will ease, and then will commence the steady move onward to greater commercial achievement.