Managing Cultural Heritage: Heritage Listing and Property Value

Local governments across Australia are often placed in the invidious position of acknowledging the long term value to the community of a property or place by including it in a heritage register whilst alienating some current, often vocal, sectors of that community who raise concerns over an actual or perceived loss of individual, usually proprietary, rights. Whilst such conflicts of interest are inevitable, the necessity to manage such situations sensitively and effectively remains the lot of the local authority. In order to assist with the appropriate management of such situations, a study has been undertaken into the effects of heritage listing on property value in the context of the management of Queensland's cultural heritage. This has been achieved through a review of key domestic and international studies and seven themes ñ impacting upon a range of stakeholders across the community - have been elicited from the research and are reported in this paper. Despite the diversity of the material reviewed, a number of defining variables were nominated by the studies as providing useful bench marks ñ such as geographical context, building type and other variables, and a range of methodologies. A matrix has been generated which is one original contribution of this research and which it is anticipated will be developed from the subsequent field research. The methodologies identified in the literature fell into three main groups ñ macro, micro and attitudinal ñ and it is proposed that this broad structure will be used as the basis of the second stage of this study.