The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Heritage cash will help to raise roof
AGranite City 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 19thCentury property on Schoolhill were each facing a £21,000 bill for the major roof works.
But 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.
Newton Property director Ross Watt believes the Schoolhill site 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 more than 100 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.”
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.
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 Blisted 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 so as to ensure that part of Aberdeen’s granite heritage is conserved.”
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.