Page 341 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat
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            During the next two years the land boom continued, prices soared to incredible heights, but
       by 1365 (1946) although prices had not fallen there was a decline in the number of important properties
       which were bought and sold. Speculation played a great part in the land boom and the same property
       was often sold several times in the course of a year or two. Small houses, built for letting, in Manama
       were sold for enormous sums and the price of building sites, especially on the waterfront, were com­
       parable with those obtaining in quite important towns in Britain or the United States. During 1364
       sales of property valued at 24$ lakhs were registered in the department. Property which was sold
       during the land boom, on an average, fetched six times the price that it had been bought for about
       seven years previously. Throughout the war new building was almost impossible and the cost of
       adding to or repairing houses was prohibitive, the boom in land values, the cost of building materials
       and the urgent demand for houses, especially by British firms who acquired the reputation of not
       caring how much they paid, contributed towards the high rents of hired houses.
            New arrangements in the courts which aimed at speeding up the hearing of cases relieved the
       Land Department of a quantity of old land disputes which had been accumulating for some time and
       by the end of 1364 scarcely any pending cases remained. During the year the department dealt with
       the compensation to a number of garden owners for ground along the Manama—Rudam-al-Kawari
       road which was acquired by the Government when the road was widened.
            In 1365 the number of transactions which were registered was 750 of which 543 were sales,
       the sum involved in the sales was Rs. 28,47,500, registration fees collected by the department amount­
       ed to Rs. 57,800. Included in these sales were a date garden at Kerzakkan which was bought for
       Rs. 50,500, land, which used to be a swamp, on the south edge of Manama which was sold for
       Rs. 2,05,000, a large godown in Manama bazaar which fetched Rs. 80,000 and the Ferook House, a valu­
       able site containing a large indifferent building which was purchased for Rs. 1,60,000. Speculation
       in small houses for letting received a set-back owing to a rent restriction law which was introduced
       during Ramadhan, this fixed the rent of houses at 4% of the present value and a committee was
       appointed to assess the present value of house property. Landlords regard the rate of 4% as a small
       return on their investment, which is true in the case of houses built during the war, but these are
       few, and as the majority of leased houses were built before the war and are now worth about three
       times their prewar value, the return on such houses works out at about 12%.
            During the year the Government acquired by exchange two small lakes and. the surrounding
       ground on the western edge of Manama town from Hassan-al-Gosaibi. It is proposed that a public
       garden shall be made at this place as a substitute for the municipal garden which is now so surrounded
       by houses that it has lost much of its old popularity.
                            Land Registration 1346—1365.
                             Year.                 No. of Registrations.
                    1346    1927- 28                     280
                    1347    1928- 29                     357
                    1348    1929- 30                     464
                    1349    1930- 31                     394
                    1350    1931- 32                     575
                    1351    1932- 33                     444
                    1352    1933- 34                     443
                    1353    1934- 35                     537
                    1354    1935- 36                     545
                    1355    1936- 37                     756
                    1356    •1937-38                     5i6
                    1357    1938- 39                     710
                    1358    1939- 40                     573
                    1359    1940- 41                     457
                    1360    1941                         837
                    1361    1942                         923
                    1362    1943                         87r
                    1363    1944                         738
                    1364    1945                         941
                    1365    1946                         750
                       20 years,              Total ..  12,in
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