A multi-speed Europe is now emerging among European property investors who are tackling the key issue of sustainability with varying degrees of priority and differing expectations, according to a report published on Thursday by Union Investment.
A multi-speed Europe is now emerging among European property investors who are tackling the key issue of sustainability with varying degrees of priority and differing expectations, according to a report published on Thursday by Union Investment.
While the UK and Germany show signs of the creation of a market for sustainable buildings in response to climate change, the survey by Union Investment found little evidence that France is embracing the trend. According to the survey, only 15% of French real estate investors think that a genuine market has emerged in their country for "green" buildings. In contrast, 44% of respondents in the UK and 41% in Germany consider that an established market already exists in their respective countries.
The survey also found differences in investor expectations with regard to a European certification system. Some 40% of investors in the UK and 50% in Germany would welcome a European certificate for sustainable buildings. In France, meanwhile, 60% of respondents believe a uniform European quality standard would deliver tangible benefits. The report suggested that this was ‘a possible indication that French investors believe the existing HQE system in their country fails to take proper account of the commercial aspects of sustainability that matter to them’.
The report also noted that there were marked differences between the opinions expressed by German and British real estate investors. It found UK respondents tend to associate sustainability with the environment, rating ecological construction well ahead of energy efficiency and economic aspects, whereas German real estate experts equated sustainability with long-term returns or long-term income. However the report found that there was evidence that ‘the second wave of sustainability has reached property investors in all three countries surveyed.’ Almost 60% of the real estate companies questioned in Germany, France and the UK intend to invest significantly larger amounts in sustainable properties in the future.
‘Investors will increasingly identify and leverage the long-term potential of sustainable buildings across the value chain - from acquisitions through portfolio development to property management,’ said said Dr Reinhard Kutscher, chairman of the Management Board of Union Investment Real Estate. ‘In the next two years we are likely to see an even wider range of business models emerging among market players.’
