Cooke & Arkwright
News
Cardiff Councils Property Portfolio
17/10/03
A two-year survey which valued Cardiff Council’s property portfolio at almost £1billion has been completed by Cooke & Arkwright.
Involving over 1,000 buildings throughout Cardiff, all schools, public offices, libraries, sporting facilities and community centres have been assessed in an exercise regarded as a good example of public-private partnership. Cooke & Arkwright worked closely with the Council to help conduct one of the biggest valuation programmes undertaken in the Council’s history and also one of the largest in Wales.
Cardiff’s most prestigious buildings were included in the report. City Hall, County Hall, Mansion House, New Theatre, Central Library, Saint David’s Hall, the Magistrates Court, and some of Cardiff’s biggest hotels were among those assessed. But the jewel in the crown, according to Selby Milner, Consultant with Cooke & Arkwright, was Cardiff Castle.
“It was a great challenge to value buildings like County Hall and especially the Castle because they are very unusual,” he said. “We had to value the buildings for what they are worth as assets and also take into account the many important wall paintings, marble and decorated tiles for insurance valuation. For the Castle, the assessment was compared with Windsor Castle, which had to be refurbished following the fire. Cardiff might prove more difficult to replace in some ways than Windsor, because the rooms are much smaller and there is actually more variety in detail.”
The council provided information and plans relating to each property and lease details from their database. The valuations were worked out by Cooke & Arkwright by a pre-determined method agreed with the council, following detailed inspection and site visits.
“This was very much a team effort” said Councillor Paul Cubitt, Cardiff Council Deputy Leader (Improvement, Investment & Reform). “It was quite an innovative approach with the surveyors coming in and using our computer system and working in partnership with our offices. Once each valuation was signed off the details were entered into the Council’s database providing us with an updated record of every building the Council owns.”