In the case of individuals, owning land is commonly better than renting for tax reasons (because you aren’t taxed on the counterfactual rent). Since EVF is a charity, it is tax exempt, so the same logic wouldn’t apply.
It is true of course that this isn’t a flat cost of £15m, but you have to take into account the cost of converting the property (to the extent that the conversions aren’t valuable to a prospective purchaser), the transaction costs (although these are lower than you might think because EVF should benefit from an SLDT exemption) and the maintenance costs (which will be large for a property of that character), in addition to the counterfactual income forgone.
Considered as an investment it suffers from the usual problem of property investment, which is that it’s very lumpy. The exposure is specifically this particular manor house in Oxfordshire, which makes it riskier than a balanced commercial property portfolio.
In the case of individuals, owning land is commonly better than renting for tax reasons (because you aren’t taxed on the counterfactual rent). Since EVF is a charity, it is tax exempt, so the same logic wouldn’t apply.
It is true of course that this isn’t a flat cost of £15m, but you have to take into account the cost of converting the property (to the extent that the conversions aren’t valuable to a prospective purchaser), the transaction costs (although these are lower than you might think because EVF should benefit from an SLDT exemption) and the maintenance costs (which will be large for a property of that character), in addition to the counterfactual income forgone.
Considered as an investment it suffers from the usual problem of property investment, which is that it’s very lumpy. The exposure is specifically this particular manor house in Oxfordshire, which makes it riskier than a balanced commercial property portfolio.