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5o94

VALUATION
OF
rUOl'KIlTY.
Bo.-k IV.
BO
K I V.
VALUATION
OK
PUOPLRTT.
CHAP.
I.
Thi' valnations in wliicli tlie arcliitt-ct is consulted are properly onlv those wherein
Vmild-
ings have heen or may be erected
;
from which if he wander, the probability is that lie wdl
create difficultv
for himself, tending to exhibit him as a pretender to knowledge not within
the regular course of his occupation. The general |)rinciples, therefore, on which we ))ro-
pose to touch, are confined to the sj>ecies of property above named, as distinguished froir
that in which the resident valuator near the spot in the different provinces is the best
adviser, from the local knowledge he ))ossesses. Tiie auctioneers who with unblushing
effrontery pretend to a knowledge of the value of property in the metroi)olis, are utterly
incompetent to the duties they undertake, from an ignorance of the durability and cost of
buildings, which can be attained by the practice and experience of the architect only.
Buildings may be so disadvantageously j)laced on tiieir sites as to realise nothing
like a proper interest on the money expended in their erection ; and, indeed, so as alto-
gether to destroy even the great value of the ground on whicii they are built. Thus, to
place before the reader extreme cases, which generally best illustrate a sul)ject, let him
suppose a row of hovels built in Piccadilly, and a bouse like Apsley House placed in
Wapping High Street. In both cases the productive value of the ground is destroyed,
there being no inhabitants for such dwellings in the res])ectlve (juarters of the town.
From this it must be evident that the value of town or city property, which consists
principally of buildings, is divisible into two parts; namely,

That arising from the value of the soil or site; and


That which arises from the value of the buildings placed upon it.
M'^e will suppose for a house which is fairly let at a rent of 100/. per annum, no
matter what the situation of it be, that it could be built for 1000/., and that the proprietor
or builder would be content with 7 per cent, for the outlay of his money, a rate by no
means larger tlian he would be entitled to claim, seeing that the letting, after it is built, is
a matter of .speculation, and that loss of tenants and other casualties may temporarily
deprive him of the interest of his capital. In this case, then, the rent of the mere building
would be 70/.
;
and as the full rent assumed is 100/.,
10070 =
30,
which is manifestly the value of the ground or ground rent.
Thus in the cases of valuation of freeholds, wherein the gross rent can be accn-
ratel;/ ascertained, there can be no difficulty in coming at the real value of the ground rent,
because the building rent, or that arising from the expenditure of money on the soil, caji
be immediately ascertained l)y the architect, with tlie rate of interest on it whicli it is I't
the builder should have The remainder of the rent is that inseparably attached to the value
of the soil, and belongs to the ground landlord.
The reason for thus separating the two rents is this: the ground rent, attached as
it is to the soil, is imperishable. It is true that the value of ground is constantly fluc-
tuating from the power of fashion over certain localities; but with this the valuator cannot
deal. The changes are slow
;
and the Lord Shaftesbury in the time of Charles 1 1, would
have little thought it possible, when he placed his residence in Aldersgate Street, that his
successors would have dwelt in a house in Grosvenor S(]uare; neither, even five and twenty
years ago, did it cross the mind of the then possessor of the Grosvenor pro])erty that the
Five F'ields at Chelsea contained a mine of wealth in the ground rents of Belgrave and
Katon S(|uares. Such aie the mutations of projierty, with which the jiresent ((uestion is
not involved, unless the gift of foresight, in a degree not to be expected, be given to the
valuator. The other portion of the value of house property is strictly the result of the
perishable part of it, namely, the building itself; and this is limited by the durability of
the building, which has great relation to the time it has already existed, and to the sub-
stantiality with which it has been constructed. The durability, then, or the number of
years a building will continue to realise the rent, is the second ingredient in a valuation,
and is a point upon which none but an experienced person can properly decide.
The rate of interest which the buyer is content to obtain in the investment of his
money in buildings, or, in other words, in the purchase of the perishable annuity arising
from the building, will necessarily vary with the value of money in the market. In the
compensation cases under public improveirents, wherein it is obligatory on the owner to

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