Sustainable property is desirable by all accounts, but does it make economic sense? How does one value these aspects? RICS addresses these important questions in a paper titled “Sustainable Property Investment & Management – key issues and major challenges”.

The paper is the first output of the “EU Advisory Group on Sustainable Property Investment and Management”, which was inaugurated by RICS EU Public Affairs in March 2008 to investigate the link between property development, value and sustainability.

The key objectives of this publication are:

• To raise and examine the key issues and challenges that are at stake with regard to sustainable development in the context of property related decision making.
• To illustrate that property professionals need to accept their professional responsibility with regard to a more sustainable development of the built environment.
• To review how the sustainable development discourse relates to our understanding of the role of valuers and their practices in a rapidly changing marketplace.
• To stimulate a fruitful scientific debate with regard to changes that need to be undertaken by practitioners and their respective professional bodies to adopt new policies and practices with a view on how to best educate property professionals and their clients about the relationship between sustainability and value so that the opportunities of sustainable property investment and management may be fully seized.
• To highlight that the key to facilitating more sustainable property markets lies in how we understand and value our built environment.

The report is available for download at the right-hand side of the screen. For more information please contact Ursula Hartenberger at uhartenberger@rics.org

The report was launched in September 2008 during a scientific forum on “Valuing Sustainability” in the framework of the World Sustainable Building Conference in Melbourne. The World Sustainable Building (SB) Conference series, which has been held every three years, is the peak gathering of the world’s leading technical experts and researchers on sustainable built environments. The Forum was organised by Professor Dr. Thomas Lützkendorf of Karlsruhe University and Dr. David Lorenz MRICS of Lorenz Property Advisors and addressed the following issues:

• How to bridge the gap between environmental, social, and economic aspects of property value.
• How to empirically demonstrate the relationship between a building’s environmental and social performance and its market value? What are the conditions for further strengthening this link.
• How to adapt existing property valuation methods and practices so as to reflect sustainability issues. 

The expert speakers at the forum included eminent RICS members from the EU, from Australia, the United States as well as Stephen Berry, a representative from the Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. The forum was moderated by Richard Lorch, editor of Building Research & Information.