Trust sells 17th century cottage for £1.5m to fund repairs elsewhere

Friday 19 August 2022

A charity in charge of looking after places of historic interest has sold a 17th century cottage in St. Ouen for £1.5m following an "unsolicited offer" - with the funds due to be used to repair two properties elsewhere.

La Ronce in Route de Trodez was bought by the National Trust for £117,000 in 1987 and it then carried out an extensive programme of repair and refurbishment.

The Trust said it had previously considered selling the property, both ten years ago and before the pandemic, but due to a several reasons it remained on the open rental market. 

However, it added: “Following an unsolicited offer of £1.5m from a local family last year, and after much deliberation, the Trust’s council decided to accept the offer, with the proceeds to be used to refurbish La Vallette in St. John and Les Côtils Farm in St. Helier."

Pictured: The property is off Route de Trodez, not far from St. Ouen's Methodist Church.

CEO Charles Alluto said: “The Trust was established to deliver permanent protection for areas of natural beauty and historic interest for the benefit of our island. 

“We have successfully delivered this for La Ronce, both through investment and restrictive covenants protecting its external appearance and historic significance. 

“However, the time has come to move on and release significant equity to reinvest in some of the historic buildings generously gifted to us which, in accordance with the wishes expressed by the donors, will be retained by the Trust permanently. 

“To fulfil our role as an active conservation organisation, we need to focus our attention on those historic buildings still in need of protection and repair.

“Both our existing repair backlog and the forthcoming buildings at risk register being collated by Jersey Heritage will illustrate that the Trust still has much work to do.”

La Ronce has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a cloakroom, a kitchen/diner and a drawing room, and a separate garage, pig sties and goose pens. It has around a third of a vergée of garden.

Mr Alluto said that the property had been bought by the Trust 35 years ago, and hence why it was able to sell it, adding that the Trust did not sell bequeathed properties unless they were of no historic interest or the benefactor had instructed it to do so.

He said: “We do not generally accept unsolicited offers on our properties, but the Trust has been considering selling the property for a number of years and we did actively market it on a long-lease basis a decade ago.

“When we did receive the offer, we secured two independent valuations to ensure that it represented best value.”