What makes a period property a 'period' property?

[Handyrick]

Odd question, but I ask because I am aware that in certain cities there is a price premium for period properties that is quite substantial.

I also notice that certain houses that have ripped out all the 'period features' and are modern boxes inside, still attract the period property price premium.

However, a property on the same road with similar layout and square footage, but modern build exterior, would not get the price premium.

It can't possibly be just because it looks 'period' from the outside?

Would love to know thoughts on this!

Surely being a 'period' property simply refers to the age of the building?

I'm not sure at what age a house becomes a period property? I would have said 1930s, but with the popularity of mid-century design at the moment, maybe it extends up to the 1960s now?

Most of the people commenting on this thread are coming from a place of privilege and aren’t talking about your average 2 up
2 down ‘period terrace property’ that I’ve lived in!

I agree re the hyper modern interior/period exterior being vandalism. All the features (coving, fireplaces, skirtings, architraves, doors etc) ripped out and replaced with modern fixtures, just awful, even if they are high end modern fixtures rather than a B&Q bodge. In 30 years’ time they will be looked upon the same way as the horrible 70’s & 80’s ‘refurbs’ of Victorian houses with the electric 3 bar fires, swirly carpets and fake ceilings with strip lighting & styrofoam tiles.

@Dillidilly

Surely being a 'period' property simply refers to the age of the building?

I'm not sure at what age a house becomes a period property? I would have said 1930s, but with the popularity of mid-century design at the moment, maybe it extends up to the 1960s now?

‘Period’ used to be a catch-all for pre-war (WWI) houses. Some used it to include up to 30’s, so WWII. You could be right with the definition extending now with the long lasting popularity of 50’s & early 60’s mid century design.

All my houses have been Victorian and attract the 'period property' description.

I like them for their larger room sizes, larger gardens, fire places and solid interior walls that mean I can hang pictures and put shelves up in odd corners. Also the fact that they've stood for 100 years and haven't subsided yet. Build quality tends to be better than modern houses as well.

However, I've spent 20 years replacing windows and wiring, and insulating lofts. ]

I helped DS 1 &DS2 buy just such a house. DS1 lives in a Victorian terrace and it retains the cornicing. He reinstated fire places in two rooms. Small yard at the back. It is in a city so all the Victorian houses including the three story ones have small yard that side of the river.

DS2 lives in a Grade 2 listed terrace. Very few features inside apart from large rooms. The brick is interesting and they were built by a leather factory owner for his workers. The nearer the factory the higher up in position they were and the last five are larger. Unfortunately the council Conservation people have been slack the last ten years and people have put plastic windows in. We put like for like.

Our own house is a 1850s cottage. It has no original features inside except for the inglenook we reinstated but it had a wood burner in instead of the ghastly 1950’s tiled brown fireplace that was in. We had a joiner replace the sash windows as the original ones were rotting. We lived with the original ones for twenty years. It is much warmer with the new ones. We kept the small panes. I love the look of it but next doors has plain glass and I was hoping he would make the small panes to give the finish to the semi.

Very interesting thread OP.

@Mintjulia

All my houses have been Victorian and attract the 'period property' description.

I like them for their larger room sizes, larger gardens, fire places and solid interior walls that mean I can hang pictures and put shelves up in odd corners. Also the fact that they've stood for 100 years and haven't subsided yet. Build quality tends to be better than modern houses as well.

However, I've spent 20 years replacing windows and wiring, and insulating lofts. ]

Ah, yes. The update of older properties...

Still, as much as my house is a moneypit I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Love period properties.
It’s the original fireplaces windows , plot size, charm. Just don’t understand why people would rip out original features
Not fond of most new builds with their postage stamp gardens and small rooms
However, I love modern furniture in period houses and prefer modern kitchens and bathrooms . Love the contrast of the old and new

I’ve always thought it just meant Victorian/Edwardian. Excluding ex council, period terraces are 99% of the housing stock around here. Most have been opened up inside, some more than others. Cornicing, fireplaces etc I’d call original features and a house would still be ‘period’ with or without these. Thankfully our house still has quite a few although our fireplace is a restoration that doesn’t work because the chimney breast was removed above to make more space for a loft conversion.

We live in a Georgian terraced house.

We modernised the garden level, opening it up and letting in more light and adding an extension but there were not many period features at that level.

A PP said they are not really great for modern family living and this is true. Lots of stairs and usually more living space than bedroom space. Less bathrooms. We converted one bedroom to 2 bathrooms and made what would have been a dressing room into an en-suite.

The rooms are bigger, the garden long and narrow and it is very well located but it is also subject to a conservation order, very expensive to maintain as only certain methods and certified contractors can be used, no double glazing allowed and very expensive to heat. The plumbing and electricseven though we upgraded it are really old.

I sometimes dream of a modern almost American style house with a basement for laundry and maybe a gym or cinema and large rooms on 2 levels over the basement. Where everything works.

@Dillidilly

Surely being a 'period' property simply refers to the age of the building?

I'm not sure at what age a house becomes a period property? I would have said 1930s, but with the popularity of mid-century design at the moment, maybe it extends up to the 1960s now?

From 1800s to before the First World War. Definitely not 1960s!

Period property referred to the period it was built in so it can include many types of houses and styles.

There are definitive styles linked to certain periods, ie Tudor, Georgian, Edwardian, Victorian, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, 60/70 modernist.
Period houses aren’t just Victorian houses the definition can include many different types of house, but it would be better if the actual period was used in the description, ie ‘a Georgian period property’

"All property dates from one period or another, be it 500 years old or 50. So why do agents describe some houses as 'period' and not others?
There is no binding definition, but generally speaking the term period is used for buildings that pre-date the First World War. However, as time marches on and the decades mount, there is a strong argument for including later 20th-century architecture, such as Art Deco. But then the question is, when do you stop? I imagine few people would welcome seeing a house only as old as they are described as period."

www.savills.co.uk/blog/article/190304/residential-property/what-defines-a-period-property.aspx

"Do you keep seeing properties which are listed as "period"? What exactly does it mean?
This refers to a period in history. The three most common are Georgian (1714 to 1830), Victorian (1830s to 1901) and Edwardian (1901 to 1910)."

"The word 'period' essentially refers to a period of time.

But in the case of property, a 'period' home refers to a property that was built before the First World War.

You'll also have heard the terms 'Victorian', 'Edwardian' and 'Georgian' when people talk about period properties and this refers to the ruling monarch when a property was built.

Queen Victoria ruled between 1837 and 1901 and Edward VII between 1901 and 1910.

The Georgian era was much longer, thanks to four successive kings bearing the name George - George I (1714-1727), George II (1727-1760), George III (1760-1820) and George IV (1820-1830)."

We’ve just bought a house that was built sometime in the 1800s. Unsure when, but maps suggest it was there in 1880s so who knows. Anyway, it has an open fire which I find a real feature, plus blue lias stone floors. There are beams upstairs but I’m unsure whether they are real or not.
Unfortunately the original flooring in the kitchen had laminate stuck to it ☹️
But I totally agree, why market it as a ‘period property’ when the inside is anything but? There has to be original features for it to be marketed that way, surely.

We live in a victorian stone terrace, high ceilings, spacious rooms but with a twisty staircase so our wardrobe had to be delivered through the bedroom window. Unlike a lot of terraces we have a huge garden backing onto a wooded area. I do miss a decent hallway up stairs and down. We've literally got a step dividing all 4 rooms upstairs.
Round here (NW) people seem to be removing every last trace of character, so victorian villas are plastered and painted white and just have that bland look. Such a shame.

I’ve heard of properties in the USA being referred to as Victorian, which intrigues me. I don’t know how widespread it is but I think it’s used on both the East and West coasts. It may refer to genuine old properties in some places and lookalikes in others.

I own a condo (flat) in Chicago and it was described as Victorian in the listing. It was built in the 1890s. Come to think of it, it is weird they’d use that terminology!

Well there’s also the debate about ‘period style’ people often style a house or room to have a period style, even though the original house may not have been built in that period.
You get lots of bland box type houses trying to look like country cottages or something they are not (fake beams etc) which I think is not that different than modernising a Victorian house, lots of people like the scale, proportion and decoration of Georgian, Edwardian, Victorian but want to live with all the modern convinces and will remodel to suit making a blended house, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that as long as they keep the basic fabric of the building.
Personally I wouldn’t dream of taking out period features, however I did previously own a house that had been an Edwardian semi detached, but it was bombed in WW2, the owners had it rebuilt to the original plans, (although the attached next door rebuilt differently) so it had all the scale and proportions of an Edwardian house but none of the details, so it still had sash windows, fireplaces (but 50’s ones) herringbone block floors downstairs (instead of floorboards) high skirting boards, picture rails, but no ceiling roses or fancy cornices etc. It as a perfect mix for us as we could modernise without taking anything away (although we did take out the 50s fireplaces).

@LakeShoreD

I own a condo (flat) in Chicago and it was described as Victorian in the listing. It was built in the 1890s. Come to think of it, it is weird they’d use that terminology!

What's so weird? 1890's is late Victorian.

@LakeShoreD

I own a condo (flat) in Chicago and it was described as Victorian in the listing. It was built in the 1890s. Come to think of it, it is weird they’d use that terminology!

So the mid-West too! I think Sara Paretski has used the term in her V I Warshawski books. (In fact much of what I know about the USA is from detective novels. Luckily many of these novelists are big on descriptors of place.)

What's so weird? 1890's is late Victorian.

It’s Queen Victoria. Who wasn’t Queen of the USA.

@LakeShoreD

I own a condo (flat) in Chicago and it was described as Victorian in the listing. It was built in the 1890s. Come to think of it, it is weird they’d use that terminology!

It’s not weird that a building built in the 1890’s would be Victorian, Queen Victoria reigned from the late 1830’s - the very early 1900’s. It is weird that an American building would be described that way though, I get that.

@borntobequiet

What's so weird? 1890's is late Victorian.

It’s Queen Victoria. Who wasn’t Queen of the USA.

It's referring to a style of architecture, not government.

A guy I know decorated his 1930's flat in flamboyant Victoriana style.

It looked a bit crap.