Period property is worth more than new builds and has risen by 60% since 2002. Victorian flats and houses are the most popular type of housing in the UK. The facades of these buildings would make wonderful apartments that people would actually want rather than yet more faceless new builds which people don't.

I went into various Estate agents in Forest Hill and Sydenham and they said developers never ask them what people want. They ALL said the same things; people want period 2 bed below stamp duty threshold if possible, but period dwellings are always worth more. The new builds aren't selling.

According to the report mentioned above (its very long) the uncoverted buildings according to the council are worth: Pools Building ?238,000 and the value of Louise House is around ?169,000.

This is the conclusion of the architects who conducted the study:

5.01 CONCLUSION
Both the Frontage Building and Louise House are attractive and characterful buildings which are capable of conversion into high quality homes. If designed and built with suitable care these should be very attractive to prospective buyers.
The conversion proposals appear to be commercially viable. However, the high cost of conversion means that development profits may be quite low and the potential land receipt to the Council, available to cross-subsidise the new leisure complex, appears to be relatively modest. Of course, a lot depends on future movement in the currently very unstable housing market.
We recommend that the Council looks carefully at its different procurement options, should it choose to pursue conversion of one or both buildings, since this has the potential to effect the commercial viability. In the current market it may even be worth considering a shared ownership solution, especially if this can attract grant.
We understand that HLM are separately looking at the scope to integrate one or both existing buildings into the overall development, and whether to do so would unacceptably compromise the new leisure complex. We therefore have no comment on this point.

Total cost of converting Louise House into 6 self contained flats was estimated at ?973,000.

Total cost of converting the pools building into 6 self contained flats was estimated at ?1,470,000.