"While market conditions are certainly improving, the cost of borrowing remains high, and it’s clear that the greater complications and costs associated with purchasing a Grade Listed property are deterring buyers in the current market"
- Verona Frankish - Yopa
A listed building is a property recorded on a national register due to its architectural or historical significance, to protect and maintain these structures for future generations.
Although protected by law, they can be modernised with consent, but generally speaking, they offer a unique opportunity for homebuyers to own a piece of our nation’s history, with just a finite number available to purchase on the open market.
However, according to analysis from Yopa, in current market conditions, the appeal of a Grade Listed property purchase has faded, no doubt due to tighter mortgage restrictions, as well as the higher running and maintenance costs often associated with these properties.
Yopa’s analysis reveals that the current demand for Grade Listed homes across 20 major British cities stands at 35%. This is -13% below current general housing market demand which itself stands at 48%.
The biggest of these gaps is found in Southampton. Here, general market demand stands at 53%, while demand for Grade Listed homes is -36% less at just 17%.
In both Newcastle and Glasgow, Grade Listed demand currently sits -28% below the general market, while in Birmingham the difference is -27%.
Grade Listed demand is also particularly weak compared to the general market in Swansea (-23%), Portsmouth (-22%), and Edinburgh (-16%).
In fact, of the 20 cities studied, there are only three in which Grade Listed demand exceeds wider market demand.
In Leicester, Grade Listed demand of 52% is +14% above general market demand (38%), while in Cambridge the difference is +6% in favour of Grade Listed, and in Manchester it’s +3%.
CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented: “Grade Listed homes offer a unique opportunity for homebuyers to purchase a truly one-of-a-kind property bursting with individual and historic character. But anyone who is thinking of doing so needs to consider the potential challenges that come with owning such a property.
"You need to consider the restrictions in place when it comes to renovating or modernising the property, not to mention the fact that you often need to use specialist tradespeople to carry out any work. And then there’s the potentially higher running costs that come with such a home.
"While market conditions are certainly improving, the cost of borrowing remains high, and it’s clear that the greater complications and costs associated with purchasing a Grade Listed property are deterring buyers in the current market.
"That said, if you have been considering a Grade Listed property purchase, now could be the time to strike, as less demand is almost certainly likely to result in a reduction in Grade Listed property values.”
