Our Garden Suburb

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 10

Our Garden Suburb

DEMAND FOR BUILDING SITES

PUBLIC interest is shown in the prospective sale on Monday evening of some of the choice sections in the Orakei Garden Suburb, a locality which was eagerly sought at exceptionally high prices at previous sales. Lower-priced building allotments are not in keen demand on account of the uncertainty of transport, but the Lands Department, which handles the area, is ready with sections as the demand develops.

Settlement on the Orakei Peninsula is being pushed steadily on. Some fine houses are already dotted about the land that was disposed of at previous sales. Others are designed and plans made for their erection. Water, drainage, electric light and good roads have been supplied to the suburb, and for those who have private means of access conditions are close to ideal. Partly for this reason the public has retained a lively interest in the disposal of sections there. High prices were expected, but when £1,450 was paid for a select lot along the waterfront heights, it was plainly seen that competition for the best lots would be keen. Up to the present time 135 sections, each of approximately a Quarter acre, have been offered for sale. Sixty-six of these have been sold and the remaining 69 are still available for purchase. Altogether the Lands Department realised £51,000 upon the sales, an average price of £775 a section. HIGH-PRICED LOTS At the first sale in February of last year, 27 of the best sections were disposed of at an aggregate figure of £25,000. Two months later the second lots were offered, IS of them being sold for a total of £16,000. The third sale, exactly 12 months ago, disposed of a further 24 sections. On Monday evening 48 allotments will be placed under the hammer, 15 of which are the pick of the sites along the Paritai Drive and commanding a magnificent view of the Waitemata Harbour and the Rangitoto Channel from the tip of Hobson Point. At the previous sales the sections in this vicinity realised from £1,125

to £1,400, th,e record figure of £1,450 having been obtained for a choice lot further along the heights. There are many advantages attached to the purchase of Orakei sections. It is a provision of the Local Legislation Act of 1927 that until half the whole area has been sold, the City must not charge special rates upon occupied land. From the date of purchase, then, the general rate of 2s 9d is the only burden. SHOPPING AREAS If every lot offered on Monday evening is sold, there will still be over 1,000 sections on Orakei available for purchase. It will be some time, possibly, before the provision allowing for the payment of special city rates is allowed to function. At the sales so far Ike department has experienced little difficulty in securing its upset value for the sections offered. Sometimes bidding is slow. If often starts at £3OO for a £750 section, and rises in bids of £25. But the upset price is ultimately reached in the great majority of cases, and values reached approximate very closely to the original figure fixed by the department. On the Orakei Peninsula an area is set aside for shops. None of this land is yet sold, because the settlement of the suburb has not progressed sufficiently to warrant it. Since the waterfront road was opened at the beginning of the month there has been a steady inquiry for Orakei sections, and the Lands Department officers believe that the development of the Garden Suburb will henceforth be fairly rapid, and will reach its full measure of popularity only when efficient transport services are instituted.