Investment Leverage for Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage

The investment needs of urban, peri urban and rural areas to achieve sustainable growth varies depending on the size of urban conurbations and rural clusters, demographic trends, geographic location, political and economic stability and the quality of existing assets, including cultural heritage assets. The reticence of traditional capital markets to quantifying intangible socio-cultural, environmental, aesthetic, and spiritual values in the cultural heritage investment decision making process, can lead to market failure, investment barriers and a consequent trade-off between value judgments relating to the value preferences of diverse stakeholders. Altered financial markets stemming from political and economic turbulence over the last decade has exacerbated this situation and negatively impacted on the financial viability of many cultural heritage activities. Market failure coupled with pure profit orientation, from some sectors of the marketplace, can potentially result in inappropriate adaptation or demolition of built heritage assets unless gap finance can be sourced from limited public finances or sympathetic philanthropic benefactors, leaving the fate of many cultural assets to profit driven capital markets and political whim.