COSTLY LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 598, 26 February 1929, Page 1

COSTLY LAND

AN AMAZING RENTAL SYDNEY DEALS AND VALUES Examples of high Sydney property values and recent deals of remarkable magnitude are given by Mr. E. H. Maas, a well-known Sydney land and estate agent who is making a holiday tour of the Dominion prior to leaving for the Homeland. Mr. Maas arrived this morning on the .Maunganui and will leave this evening for the Tongariro River. "Business in Sydney has never been better than it is at present,” he told The Sun man. “There is more money about than ever before. The extent of city building activity is amazing and I am in a position to know that the new buildings and those in course of construction in Castlereagh Street alone represent an expenditure of £9,000,000. “I know of a case in which a Pitt Street property was sold for £4,000 a foot.

“Just before T left I managed to complete the biggest leasing deal in Australia’s history. The firm of O. J. Coles secured premises with a frontage of 40 feet at a rental of £ 400 h week plus rates and taxes amounting to £BO a week.

"The total rent on the 21 years’ lease amounts to about £300.000. in addition to which the firm is spending £37 000 in alterations. You will see that the rent works out at about £lO an hour.’*

Property values were not booming in the usual sense of the term. 1 e added. They were as firm as they were high, and the demand was keen. Mr. Maas purchased one important property and resold at a profit of £7,500 within seven days.