Aardvark News
The price is not right
The UK’s commercial property sector is struggling – and things could get worse.
So when will sustainable buildings start being valued properly? As Aardvark reports, valuers, landlords and tenants all need to embrace green credentials.
Nick Leaney, a chartered surveyor and director with environmental consultancy Aardvark EM, says the UK commercial property market has been slow to embrace sustainability issues. “There are many factors which influence valuation – location, the age and condition of the building and tenant covenant strength – and sustainability is still not regarded as a material consideration, particularly when it comes to rental values,” he said.
“There have been green initiatives for assessing building energy performance, but so far these have had only a marginal effect on property values as the industry has found it hard to quantify the benefit. We’ve seen this very clearly in the past five years where the bull market has meant that despite sustainability issues moving up the agenda, the imbalance between demand and supply has been the major factor driving rental growth.”
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Sustainable Business - The Price is Not Right
Thursday, 10 December 2009