Historical legacy affects the value of cultural monuments. For example, the distance from the stop has an influence

In their research, David Brandejs and Pavel Klika from the Institute of Forensic Engineering of BUT deal with what factors influence the value of cultural monuments. Specifically, they were interested in how price-setting factors such as the age of the building or the architectural style are reflected in the prices of apartments in listed buildings. It turns out that, for example, the distance to a primary school or public transport stop is important. On the contrary, architecture does not play a very big role in some localities.

At the Institute of Forensic Engineering BUT (abbreviated IFE) they have been dealing with real estate valuation and valuation methods for a long time. "We examine the pricing factors that affect the value of real estate. We divide them into two main groups - qualities of properties and qualities of their surroundings. Qualities of the property include, for example, the building material used, the age of the building, the wear and tear of the building and its remaining life, the layout and size of the building, the number and location of floors, but also the shape of the building and its location to the cardinal points. The value of a house made of bricks is different, that of a house made of panels, prefabricated buildings or wooden buildings," David Brandejs from IFE explains. The characteristics of the surroundings include mainly functional, aesthetic, psychological and sociological factors. But also, spatial factors, the location of the building in the locality or civic amenities in the vicinity. "Spatial factors include, for example, the distance from a kindergarten, primary or university, but also, for example, from the nearest doctor. Even such things have a major impact on the value of real estate. It often works covertly, but perhaps all the more forcefully," Brandejs points out.

Together with his colleague Pavle Klika, he decided to map a less explored area, which is cultural monuments. "Specifically, we evaluate the factors that influence the value of residential units in heritage-protected apartment buildings," he describes. In addition to the materials used or the distance from the nearest public transport stop, he was also interested in the influence of the architectural style and age of the buildings. They included all cities in the Czech Republic with more than ninety thousand inhabitants in the research. Except for Prague. "With its specific market, area and high number of cultural monuments, it is too big for us to collect and evaluate all the data in one year," Brandejs explains.

ARCHITECTURE OR AGE DO NOT INCREASE THE VALUE TOO MUCH

Although the project has not yet been completed and all the data has been evaluated, some surprising phenomena are already beginning to appear. According to David Brandejs, for example, he was surprised to find that in some localities the architectural style of the building does not have a significant effect on the value of the housing units. "We already have evaluated data from Pilsen, Brno and Olomouc. So far, there is a statistically insignificant influence of the architectural style on those, i.e. whether the housing unit is in the art nouveau, baroque or historicist style or perhaps a house built in the style of modern architecture. The evaluation of the cadastral territory of České Budějovice was very interesting and surprising. Here, on the other hand, a statistically significant effect on the value of residential units in heritage-protected apartment buildings was demonstrated," Brandejs explains. In this locality, buildings in the Neo-Renaissance, Gothic and Renaissance styles have the highest value. The lowest then baroque and art nouveau style. "In order to be able to draw a definite conclusion as to whether the architectural style really affects the value of buildings, at the end of the entire project we will statistically test all results from all individual locations en masse," Brandejs adds.

It was also unexpected to discover that even the age of the house is not important in this case. "For ordinary real estate, of course, new buildings have a higher value. But for cultural monuments, I expected that the age of the building could, due to its historical value, increase its price. That is, on the assumption that the house is after reconstruction. But even that was not confirmed in a number of locations," David Brandejs adds.

Apartments in listed buildings near primary schools and public transport stops had the highest value. "At the same time, the research did not confirm the claim that the closer the property is to the city centre, the more expensive it is," Brandejs notes.

A NEW METHODOLOGY SHOULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM WITH VALUATION OF CULTURAL MONUMENTS

At the moment, according to him, the valuation of cultural monuments is very complicated. "One option is to determine the value based on a comparative method. However, it is very difficult to find essentially identical, i.e. comparable, housing units with the same parameters, such as size, in the same location and similar listed building," Brandejs points out.

The second option is to proceed according to the price regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance in a decree. "However, the regulation sets the basic price per square meter of floor area or cubic meter of built-up space and does not take into account the historical value," Brandejs says. Income methods can then be used only on the assumption that it is an object for commercial use, i.e. that the immovable cultural monument is rented. "However, other aspects of intangible value can enter into the valuation, for example the charm of the place or the reputation of the store and its good reputation. And these are very problematic values to quantify," Brandejs adds.

That is why the Institute of Forensic Engineering, in cooperation with the National Institute of Monuments, is now striving to obtain a project to develop a new method for valuing national cultural monuments. "Our research so far could serve as a source and a partial entry into this larger long-term project," David Brandejs, who, as part of his doctoral studies, has been focusing primarily on the impact of tourism on real estate values for a long time, concludes.

The grant "Influence of significant factors influencing the value of immovable national cultural monuments with residential function in the Czech Republic" is implemented within the project Quality Internal Grants of the BUT (KInG BUT), reg. no. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_073/0016948, which is funded by the OP VVV.

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