An Aberdeen property management firm has saved residents more than £15,000 each off a roof repairs bill – thanks to securing six figure heritage funding.
Tenants of the 19th-century property on Schoolhill were each facing a £21,000 bill for the major roof works.
But property factor Newton Property Management secured funding of £151,200 from registered charity, Aberdeen City Heritage Trust, that reduced the average repairs costs for residents to £5,600.
The property, which houses nine residential flats with shop, Oliver Bonas, on the ground floor retail unit was in critical need of a roof renewal.
‘Ongoing issue across Aberdeen’
Managing director of Newton Property Ross Watt believes the Schoolhill property is one of many buildings across the city in need of urgent repairs and maintenance.
He said: “This is an ongoing issue in Aberdeen as there are around 12,000 granite tenement flats in the city, many built over a hundred years ago, and no-one is taking responsibility for the management of ongoing regular maintenance.
“With slates only lasting around 50 years, most of these properties will be in need of significant roof works so any one of these properties could face the same problems as the residents at Schoolhill.”
Residents saving thousands of pounds
Newton worked with Aberdeen-based Atholls Chartered Surveyors to confirm that the granite tenement was in urgent need of roofing, stonework and window refurbishment work.
A jointly-managed tender process on behalf of the residents came back with a £330,000 refurbishment cost.
However, having faced a similar issue with other old, granite tenements, Newton and Atholls approached Aberdeen City Heritage Trust and succeeded in securing funding to the value of £151,200 which reduced the average cost for the residents to £5,600.
Mr Watt, said: “Securing this funding has made a massive difference to the residents at Schoolhill who would have been out of pocket due to decades of wear and tear, which was outwith their control.
“We have worked with ACHT on a number of other city centre tenement upgrades, so we knew that this building would likely be eligible for support.”
The company’s Aberdeen office currently oversees factoring for more than 3,000 city properties, 90 of these tenement buildings, and the team in the north has grown its factoring book by 16.1% in the past 12 months.
Granite heritage conserved
Aberdeen City Heritage Trust is funded via Historic Environment Scotland which allows it to make discretionary grant awards towards substantive repairs to traditionally-built historic buildings in parts of Aberdeen city centre.
Trust project officer Douglas Campbell said: “This property is a prominent category B- listed building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, better known for his design of the frontage of Marischal College.
“It has some fine architectural detailing, however, the complex roof required significant work.
“The trust was in a position to offer property owners substantial support with repair costs at this difficult time so as to ensure that part of Aberdeen’s granite heritage is conserved.”
Nearly a fifth of Scotland’s housing is pre-1919 which accounts for 467,000 homes and 68% of those have disrepair to critical elements with 36% in need of critical and urgent repairs.
Newton, which also has an office in Inverness and Glasgow, snapped up Aberdeen property consultancy Robertson and Associates in May last year to grow its presence across the north.
The acquisition gave Newton 400 more residential properties across 12 granite city centre sites, increasing its stock in Europe’s oil and gas capital by 15% to more than 3,000 units.
It currently manages around 27,000 across the whole of Scotland.