Aspects of Land | Spring/Summer 2018

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Aspects of Land Spring / Summer 2018
to odd situations where the estate owns
and leases the main building to the school,
but the school owns the newly built
swimming pool or theatre.
There is never a bad time to check the
paperwork and untangle any complicated
situations that might be hidden within.
Estate owners need to review everything
regularly and have an idea of where they
want their business to go. That way they
can make sure that they and the school
are making the best use of assets.
It might be that the school is looking
to lower overheads, for example, which
could open up opportunities for the estate
to put the land to another use. Regular
reviews and discussions will help keep a
feel for what’s happening on both sides of
the coin.
It’s a tough market for schools and
many don’t survive the on-going race of
keeping up with
the school down
the road. However,
there’s still plenty
of scope for
educational lets.
Take Cranborne
Estate in Dorset.
One of its principal
houses had
housed a boarding school for pupils with
learning difficulties since the 1960s, but
in 2014 this closed. Savills marketed the
property and, following a £2.5 million
refurbishment (paid for jointly by the new
tenant and the landlord) it has just
re-opened as a specialist further education
college for 16-25 year olds with a variety of
learning needs.
There’s certainly plenty of opportunities
for estates with large houses to move into
the schools’ market – especially in the
south east where international schools
are growing in popularity. Education is a
fascinating area and it’s never going to go
out of fashion.
■ To learn more about letting a property for
educational purposes, speak to James Higham,
Oxford, 01865 269 023,
S chools and estates have gone
together since the early days
of feudal land ownership. And
there is many an estate today
that still provides the building
for the local parish school.
It works well for everybody – an estate
needs a vibrant community for its tenants
and workforce and they need a school
for their children. A good school is an
asset that attracts people to the
local area.
Estate owners do need to
be aware of a potential issue,
which has cropped up in the
past, when a local authority
announced that a parish school
was merging with another local
school and the building would
be sold off for development.
It took a lot of digging
through the paperwork to show that the
school was only given over by the estate
as long as it was used for education. It
might have been hundreds of years ago
that the original deal was made, but the
building, in that case, was not the local
authority’s to sell.
There are many other estates that have
found that leasing a large building and
extensive grounds for a private school
has been a very good use of assets. But
these too need to make sure they’re
utterly on top of their paperwork. Many
of the leases might date back to the
1950s – when there was a glut of country
houses available – and rent reviews can be
complex affairs.
Tenants invest millions of pounds
in making sure that they have the right
facilities to attract pupils and this can lead
ALL CHANGE ONLINE
If you’ve visited Savills website
recently, you might have noticed that
it has a fresh new look. But it’s not
just the look that has changed, it is
now easier to search for what you
want whether that’s Savills latest
research, a new property in Norfolk
or a recognised expert. The website
received more than 15 million visits in
2017 and is the most visited national
estate agency website in the UK.
6
ESTATES AND
EDUCATION
DID YOU KNOW…?
Since 1961, the global
area of arable land per
person has halved from
around 0.4 hectares
per person to 0.2
“Review everything
regularly and have
an idea of where
you want the
business to go”
JAMES HIGHAM
SAVILLS LEISURE AND TRADE
Viewpoint
24 %
The total value of the
UK forestry market during
the 2017 forest year is
£112 million, which
represents a 24% increase
on the 2016 market figure.