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Sir Francis Piggott,
Chief Justice,
Present.
My dear Sir Francis,
Hongkong, 26th July, 1907.
Peak Property.
Referring to your queries:-
1. We may state that the question of exchange never enters into our calculations when we are fixing rents of Peak property.
In my experience extending over 20 years we have only once made a sterling lease and that was for a godown at Wanchai with a Chinaman.
2. In our opinion the question of rents of Peak property is almost entirely one of supply and demand. We should say that on the average rents have fallen about 10% during the last 2 or 3 years; we know of slight increase and several reductions. Houses fetching up to about $150.00 and Taxes per month have pretty well held their own but the reductions we find have chiefly been for houses in the $200.00 region.
3. We should not go into the question of exchange in fixing a renewal of a lease.
We do not consider Peak property a profitable investment.
The upkeep of property is a very large item of expenditure besides Crown Rent, Fire and Typhoon Insurance. Anyone new buying a piece of ground from the Government would have to pay a heavy Crown Rent. Cost of land and cutting site would probably be $4/5,000.00 than $20/25,000.00 for a well-built 5 or 6 roomed house; total expenditure with interest fully $30,000.00.
From this, quite $225.00 per month would have to be obtained to make a profitable investment as for years past.
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