Strong prices in Canberra's old made new heritage market

Heritage properties around Canberra and Queanbeyan, typically Federation and the Californian bungalow, can range between $600,000 to just under $1 million given location according to analyst firm Herron Todd White.

In their latest heritage property report, HTW note Canberra and Queanbeyan have several heritage sites in local suburbs Ainslie, Griffith, Reid, Campbell and Kingston and in the Queanbeyan Town Centre.

"Heritage properties in Queanbeyan can range from $600,000 to $900,000. In Canberra’s inner north, examples include Ainslie at $700,000 plus and Reid at $900,000 plus and inner south, Kingston at $950,000 plus (if in a good location)," it said.

"What makes these dwellings desirable is that they are centrally located and in desirable locations and neighbourhoods (usually close to the city). Renovations of good quality on these heritage dwellings are proving to be quite valuable and naturally command strong prices as they have a unique aspect and a unique building construction (simply, everything old is new again).

"As always, heritage sites have particular restrictions on what owners looking to renovate can do to the property and will most likely experience higher construction costs to achieve renovations that reflect a mixture of the dwelling’s period character and the inclusions of modern features. Over-capitalisation is not much of an issue for these dwellings as the locations of the heritage areas usually already command strong price points."

According to HTW, heritage properties are typically a bit more difficult to value than your stock standard dwellings due to the unique nature of the property, restrictions on potential improvements and the general lack of heritage dwelling sales and advised potential investors historical data for these unique sales and knowledge of the locale are important when finding values.