20
October, 2016
OUR PROUD LISTED BUILDING LEGACY
PJ Livesey Group’s on going passion for Britain’s listed heritage properties
Lancaster Moor was in the spotlight in a recent feature in the Sunday Times Homes section looking at the PJ Livesey Group’s on going passion for Britain’s listed heritage properties.
Journalist Rebecca Myers was given a tour of the prestigious St. James Park development at Didsbury before sitting down in one of the show homes for a chat with Peter Livesey and daughter Georgina.
The feature focussed on the company’s skill in converting unique buildings and bringing them back to life and the commitment and passion of every single member of the PJ Livesey team.
The former Manchester Metropolitan University site is the company’s 50th development since Peter began developing 35 years ago, and we have tallied up the total number of historic buildings saved to an impressive 161! It would also appear that buying a P J Livesey period property period is a sound financial investment.
Nick Brimelow, from Didsbury agents JP & Brimelow advises demand is much stronger for heritage properties within both the rental and sales markets. He said: “The prime example is the now completed PJ Livesey development in West Didsbury, Didsbury Gate as this offers beautifully converted 1 and 2 bedroom apartments in the same locality as numerous new build developments offering apartments of a similar square footage.
“As a rule of thumb a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom apartment in Didsbury Gate would receive circa £1100pcm in rental compared to a similar modern flat which would only achieve circa £950pcm with an identical square footage. There is clearly a 10% disparity between the two types of property and in some cases even more. “What is also interesting is that tenants who initially insist on finding two bed properties will accept a one bedroom apartment instead if it is situated within a heritage block but not the other way around. This clearly confirms the demand for conversion properties significantly out weighs that of a new build scheme as well as the fact that the yield is also higher.
“This is mirrored in property sales. In my experience there has always been a greater demand for heritage/conversion properties.
“Buyers may traditionally pay more for the period properties but they enjoy a greater capital growth and demand much higher rental yields. It therefore sometimes makes more sense for a buyer to acquire a smaller heritage property than a larger modern unit as over a period of several years they will experience a greater increase in value whilst achieving a similar rental income despite the smaller square footage.
“This is mirrored in property sales. In my experience there has always been a greater demand for heritage/conversion properties.
“Buyers may traditionally pay more for the period properties but they enjoy a greater capital growth and demand much higher rental yields. It therefore sometimes makes more sense for a buyer to acquire a smaller heritage property than a larger modern unit as over a period of several years they will experience a greater increase in value whilst achieving a similar rental income despite the smaller square footage.
“The rental and sales values for both the one and two bedroom apartments within Didsbury Gate have increased at a much greater rate than comparable modern units within exactly the same location.
“If you therefore were to implement the same theory to the St James Park scheme it is entirely understandable that there has been such a high level of demand for the converted apartments which are on offer. “
