Church of England property portfolio estimated at £10.3bn

871,000 people attend a Church of England service each week, although this has fallen from 975,300 since 2014 and will have no doubt dropped further due to lockdown restrictions.

The Church of England will have benefitted from some significant property price growth since its foundation in 1534 and the latest research by Yes Homebuyers estimates that across England, the CofE is sitting on a religious real estate portfolio to the tune of £10.3bn.

Yes Homebuyers looked at the number of CofE churches in each area of England and the size of this property portfolio based on the estimated square footage. Yes Homebuyers then looked at what this equates to from a residential standpoint based on current property market values.

Oxford tops the table with 811 CofE churches covering an estimated 1,697,423 square feet in the area. With the current Oxford home going for £561 per square foot, the CofE is sitting on an impressive portfolio to the tune of £953m in Oxford alone.

London also ranks high in the CofE property portfolio, with 475 churches equating to 994,175 square feet of bricks and mortar worth an estimated £624,274,221.

St Albans (£571m), Bath &Wells (£555m), Chelmsford (£527m), Chichester (£513m), Southwark (£488m), Salisbury (£448m), Winchester (£447.5m) and Exeter (£428m) also rank in the top 10.

At the other end of the table, the Diocese of Sodor and Man is the CofE’s smallest diocese, with just 39 churches on the Isle of Man. Even still, the 81,627 estimated square feet of religious real estate is valued just shy of £27.5m in today’s market.

Matthew Cooper, Founder & Managing Director of Yes Homebuyers, commented:

“With so many churches the length and breadth of the nation, it’s fair to say that the Church of England is probably sitting on one of the most valuable real estate portfolios around.

Some may question whether such a vast level of real estate is required when attendance has fallen, and we remain pushed for space when addressing the current housing crisis.

Should the Church of England decide to offload some of its portfolio, it would add a considerable sum to their balance sheet based on current market values.”

Number of churches across England and in each diocese sourced from churchofengland.org House prices sourced from Gov.uk UK House Price Index
Table shows the estimated real estate value of CofE churches based on square footage in each location and across England as a whole
Location	Number of CofE churches	Total estimated sq ft*	Average house price - Dec 2020	Average price per sq ft**	Total estimated value of sq ft area***
Oxford	811	1,697,423	£443,509	£561.40	£952,940,508
London	475	994,175	£496,066	£627.93	£624,274,221
St. Albans	407	851,851	£529,873	£670.73	£571,358,198
Bath & Wells	559	1,169,987	£374,959	£474.63	£555,312,703
Chelmsford	576	1,205,568	£345,371	£437.18	£527,048,460
Chichester	475	994,175	£407,394	£515.69	£512,684,662
Southwark	355	743,015	£519,142	£657.14	£488,266,358
Salisbury	566	1,184,638	£298,659	£378.05	£447,850,970
Winchester	357	747,201	£473,190	£598.97	£447,554,193
Exeter	595	1,245,335	£271,402	£343.55	£427,830,134
York	582	1,218,126	£267,932	£339.16	£413,133,554
Lichfield	544	1,138,592	£269,369	£340.97	£388,228,944
Norwich	640	1,339,520	£219,105	£277.35	£371,512,762
St. Edms & Ipswich	479	1,002,547	£275,123	£348.26	£349,144,394
Leeds	597	1,249,521	£209,892	£265.69	£331,980,078
Canterbury	360	753,480	£325,890	£412.52	£310,825,167
Hereford	402	841,386	£269,024	£340.54	£286,522,914
Lincoln	625	1,308,125	£160,954	£203.74	£266,517,098
Guildford	211	441,623	£455,939	£577.14	£254,877,395
Ely	328	686,504	£287,956	£364.50	£250,231,988
Gloucester	381	797,433	£213,428	£270.16	£215,436,575
Truro	301	629,993	£262,939	£332.83	£209,683,553
Chester	342	715,806	£227,383	£287.83	£206,027,718
Peterborough	379	793,247	£196,132	£248.27	£196,937,778
Rochester	259	542,087	£254,559	£322.23	£174,674,823
Manchester	316	661,388	£200,514	£253.81	£167,870,159
Leicester	311	650,923	£201,956	£255.64	£166,402,197
Bristol	201	420,693	£311,829	£394.72	£166,055,993
Worcester	274	573,482	£219,787	£278.21	£159,549,522
Southwell & Nottingham	296	619,528	£197,856	£250.45	£155,161,352
Derby	313	655,109	£170,698	£216.07	£141,551,878
Carlisle	330	690,690	£144,791	£183.28	£126,589,659
Coventry	242	506,506	£197,253	£249.69	£126,468,167
Newcastle	238	498,134	£167,246	£211.70	£105,457,053
Portsmouth	167	349,531	£228,194	£288.85	£100,963,250
Sheffield	208	435,344	£183,090	£231.76	£100,894,993
Birmingham	184	385,112	£201,308	£254.82	£98,134,318
Liverpool	236	493,948	£148,324	£187.75	£92,739,462
Blackburn	271	567,203	£126,585	£160.23	£90,885,641
Durham	264	552,552	£113,761	£144.00	£79,568,227
Sodor & Man	39	81,627	£266,000	£336.71	£27,484,534

*Church of England - overall*	15,496	32,433,128	£251,907	£318.87	£10,341,954,232
*Based on the average size of a church at 2093 sq ft.
**Based on the average size of a house at 790 sq ft.
*** Total sq ft of churches multiplied by property value per sq ft.