Heritage Designation and Property Values: is there an effect?

This paper describes research that was designed to examine the assertion that historic designation of properties, under the heritage legislation in Canada’s largest province, has a negative impact on the values of those properties. The actual selling price of subject properties was used to establish their value history trends, which were then compared to ambient market trends within the same communities. Almost 3,000 properties in 24 communities were investigated, in what is believed to be the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in North America. It was found that heritage designation could not be shown to have a negative impact. In fact there appears to be a distinct and generally robust market in designated heritage properties. They generally perform well in the market with 74 % doing average or better than average. The rate of sale among designated properties is as good or better than the ambient market trends and the values of heritage properties General By international standards the process for recognizing the significance of heritage buildings in Ontario, Canada’s largest and most populous province, is not very rigorous. The basis of heritage