How to Buy a Grade II Listed Building in England?

Most of the buildings as well as the different structures of England are considered to be the buildings of special historical, architectural, and political interests as England itself preserves the royal heritage all over the country. According to a UK property specialists analysis report that is known to be Boswell’s report, more than 90% of buildings in England possess some kind of special interest and also recorded as grade 2 listed buildings in the records of listed buildings of the UK.

There are so many existing property owners in the UK that show their interest in buying grade 2 listed buildings because of their exceptional architectural, archaeological as well as historical interest. So, in this article, we will discuss the different aspects of the popularity of the grade 2 listed buildings followed by the procedure of buying a grade II listed building in England.

Popularity of the grade 2 listed buildings and why should people buy them?

Grade two listed buildings are so popular because of their unique entities and national as well as historical interest. Additionally, these types of buildings are very in trend for property owners. Though these buildings won’t be allowed to change their architectural structures after buying as they are considered as heritage buildings, yet buyers are very willing to buy those buildings because possession of one of such buildings also doubles the buyer’s social status too.

Additionally, owning a grade 2 listed property can bring you a good fortune by the time of selling the same as these types of buildings of specific features and interests become more valuable in each time of buying and selling. Some owners also give them rent for special occasions too. Furthermore, other than having a non-listed building, possessing a grade 2 listed is more beneficial as the owner can ask for a monetary grant from the logistics at the time of any kind of necessary renovation. Renovation tax or VAT on repairs can be ‘zero-rated’ in the time of taking building consent for any kind of structural changes.

Moreover, if you are planning to buy a grade 2 listed property, you are going to become the owner of a national heritage property that means your home would be considered as one of a kind. Your property would be in possession of historical significance. Along with that, you would be known as the preserver of a unique unchanged archeological and architectural structure which is extremely a matter of pride.

How to buy a listed building?

When you are planning to buy a grade 2 listed building, you need to do adequate research on the specific procedures of buying the same. Along with that, you have to be aware of the factors to be fulfilled for making a commitment of buying a property of exceptional heritage interest. As grade 2 listed properties are considered as politically, locally or nationally important, so the conservation of such properties will be the priority.

There are a few restrictions in buying properties of exceptional significance and the buyers need to take care of the considerations before deciding to buy those buildings.

You can buy a grade 2 listed property with the help of your local registered real-estate agencies or agents that can handle all the legal formalities for such property. You can also hire a chartered surveyor who is accredited by the 5 RICS, to compare all the essential matters with the agents. This is how you can save both money and time as the real-estate agencies or agents can show you overpriced estimation by taking advantage of your interest in buying a heritage property. To avail this facility you need to be in touch with the most popular and reliable surveyor the 5 RICS constantly and have to fill a quick and easy form of registration. You can choose your surveyor according to your location and also discuss any of your property-related queries before buying.

Along with all the above-mentioned offline processes, you can also search online real-estate sites for buying grade 2 listed properties. Here it is suggested to depend on affiliated and legally registered real-estate websites for making any commitment. Here are some of such sites listed below:

How to renovate grade 2 listed buildings?

There are several distinctive predicaments remaining in case you want to alter or renovate your owned listed property after buying. No need to assume that just because you have paid for the property you can do whatever you want with your property. You must remember that your property is not only a mere building that can restructure however you want but it is a heritage architectural structure that needs to be preserved and would remain unchanged all the time.

But still, if there is any emergency requirement to repair or renovate to save the property’s real structure, you must have to take the building consent from your Local Authority Planning Department. Otherwise, it would be considered a criminal offense if you start the reconstruction process of the property without taking the permission of the building consent logistics. You can be accused of practicing vandalism and might be thrown behind the bar for a long period of time.

Additionally, you are not allowed to say anything if the consent authority could not find your request useful after surveying your property. On the other hand, if the local planning authority finds that your property needs to be renovated, they would send you a ‘repair notice’ and the rules and restriction policies regarding repairing and you must have to act accordingly. Here to be noticed that not all the time the authority is obliged to grant you the repairing costs. So, you better calculated the future reconstruction cost of your heritage property before planning to buy one and the renovation costs for the property of historical significance are pretty higher than the normal buildings. Its repair cost sometimes exits the resale value of the property, in this case, the owner might be met with drastic loss.

Hope, the above discussion will be helpful to you.