Business & Finance Renting & Real Estate

Heritage Real Estate

How often does Heritage Real Estate come onto the market? How often does anyone think of buying heritage real estate? Not very often I would think as most people seem to think there are real problem in doing so especially if they want to renovate, restore or just change things a bit.
Well this is not entirely true, most heritage properties come with quite few restrictions and even if there are many one can usually negotiate with the relevant authority to allow some otherwise prohibited changes to be made.
Unfortunately there is still the misconception that you can't do anything to heritage-listed buildings.
One main misconception is that you cannot add onto heritage real estate.
Not true, most add-ons are allowed if they are in sympathy with the existing building.
Just look at the add-ons that have been allowed on some of the heritage listed buildings in Melbourne.
The add-on does not have to be exactly the same it has to be in "sympathy".
In effect I would say that if you wanted to add onto a "Georgian" style heritage building, the add-on should look Georgian but does not have to be identically Georgian and can be built out of modern materials.
Would you reasonably add-on a "Victorian" addition to a Georgian building, if you were someone who would consider doing this why would you think to buy a heritage property in the first place.
As mentioned there are various degrees of restrictions put on heritage real estate.
There are also three levels of authority.
One would consider there are four if you add "World Heritage" listed sites, but as these are usually managed at the country government level I still consider that there are only three - Federal, State and Local Government as far as Australia is concerned.
The three levels are to manage the "significance" of the heritage real estate.
Obviously the Federal government manages heritage properties that are of Australia wide significance, The State those that are of statewide significance and any that are of local significance are manage by local government.
This means that if you are thinking of buying heritage real estate you should first find what level of "significance" the property has and what sort of restrictions has been placed upon it.
There is also a perception that there is a lot more work, expense and delays in the restoring of Heritage Real Estate.
Of course a lot depends on the condition of any buildings.
Considering the cost of demolishing a heritage building and building a similar structure in it's place one would be surprised just how little difference there is in costs.
One would think that delays in Heritage permissions would drag things out but you would also be surprised that there are more delays in planning permissions of a new building than there is in an existing one.
Why would one buy heritage real estate? Well, just think of this, there are not many heritage properties for sale around and very few in private hands.
Obtaining one and possibly restoring it and turning it into use provides you with something unique, something that very few people have.
Consider this when looking for something unique and different.
Go and buy your grand mansion if you want somewhere, there are plenty around and not much different from each other.
Think of the grand designs of yesteryear most not re-produced these days because they would look silly on modern buildings.
But consider the enchanted way of living with the past in a modern day world if you are the proud owner of a heritage building restored to it's former glory.
Needless to say we are not looking at the massive heritage buildings that tend to be owned by the various levels of government but of the smaller plots of heritage real estate that are around that add to the past culture that is uniquely "Australian".

Leave a reply