Share:


Environmental certification schemes and property values: evidence from the Hong Kong prime commercial office market

    Jayantha Wadu Mesthrige Affiliation
    ; Hoi-Ting Chan Affiliation

Abstract

A barrier to green-building development is the uncertainty and scepticism about the financial implications. This study aimed to investigate whether the green-certification schemes help buyers to recognize the benefits of green office buildings by their willingness to pay a premium for such buildings. The study used a hedonic-model based on a sample of 67 prime office buildings (including non-green comparables) certified by HKBEAM, BEAM-Plus and LEED in Hong Kong. The empirical findings suggest that green certification schemes add extra value to an office property. The rental value of office properties certified by HKBEAM, BEAM Plus and LEED is about 10.9% higher than for non-certified office buildings. More specifically, tenants/users are willing to pay a premium of 10.9% for green-certified office properties. The findings have practical implications in encouraging green building development in Hong Kong and elsewhere. The findings indicate that the higher rental income from green office buildings can cover the additional cost of obtaining green certification within a period of 22-months (22.32 months) in Hong Kong. The results provide references for various stakeholders (developers/investors/users) in establishing the business case for green-office buildings, because of the ability of the market to capitalize the environmental benefits of green office properties.

Keyword : green certification, office rental value, green-premium, HK-BEAM, BEAM Plus and LEED

How to Cite
Wadu Mesthrige, J., & Chan, H.-T. (2019). Environmental certification schemes and property values: evidence from the Hong Kong prime commercial office market. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, 23(2), 81-95. https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2019.7434
Published in Issue
Jan 18, 2019
Abstract Views
2100
PDF Downloads
1284
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Addae-Dapaah, K., & Chieh, S. J. (2011). Green mark certification: does the market understand? Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 3, 162-191.

Ahankoob, A., Morshedi, S. R. E., & Rad, K. G. (2013). A comprehensive comparison between LEED and BCA green mark as green building assessment tools. The International Journal of Engineering and Science, 2(7), 31-38.

BEAM Society. (2012a). BEAM 4/04 & 5/04 certified building. Retrieved from https://www.beamsociety.org.hk/en_beam_assessment_project_4_detail.php?page=26

BEAM Society. (2012b). BEAM plus new buildings version 1.2. Retrieved from https://www.beamsociety.org.hk/files/BEAM_Plus_For_New_Buildings_Version_1_2.pdf

Benson, E. D., Hansen, J. L., Schwartz, A. L. J., & Smersh, G. T. (1998). Pricing residential amenities: the value of a view. Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 16(1), 55-73. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007785315925

Bollinger, C., Ihlandfeldt, K., & Bowes, D. (1998). Spatial variations in office rents within the Atlanta region. Urban Studies, 35(7), 1097-1118. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098984501

Brennan, T. P., Cannaday, R. E., & Colwell, P. F. (1984). Office rent in the Chicago CBD. Real Estate Economics, 12(3), 243-260. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.00321

Business Environment Council. (2011). Leading responsible business. Retrieved from https://www.bec.org.hk/eng/corporate_introduction.aspx

Castro, M. D. F., Mateus, R., & Bragança, L. (2015). A critical analysis of building sustainability assessment methods for health-care buildings. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 17(6), 1381-1412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-014-9611-0

Chan, E., Esther, H. W., & Yung, H. K. (2004). Is the development control legal framework conducive to a sustainable dense urban development in Hong Kong? Habitat International, 28(3), 409-426. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0197-3975(03)00040-7

Chegut, A., Eichholtz, P., & Kok, N. (2011). The London commercial property price index. The Journal of Real Estate and Economics, 47(4), 588-616. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-013-9429-9

Chegut, A., Eichholtz, P., & Kok, N. (2014). Supply, demand and the value of green buildings. Urban Studies, 51(1), 22-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013484526

Das, P., Tidwell, A., & Ziobrowski, A. (2011). Dynamics of green rentals over market cycles: evidence from commercial office properties in San Francisco and Washington DC. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 3(1), 1-22.

Das, P., & Wiley, J. A. (2013). Determinants of premia for energy efficient design in the office market. Journal of Property Research, 31(1), 64-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/09599916.2013.788543

Dimoudi, A., & Tompa, C. (2008). Energy and environment indicators related to construction of office buildings. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 53(1-2), 86-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.09.008

Dunckley, M. (2007). Green works wonders. The Australian Financial Review, 18, 1-57.

Eichholtz, P., Kok, N., & Quigley, J. M. (2010). Doing well by doing good? Green office buildings. American Economic Review, 100, 2494-2511. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.5.2492

Enström, R., & Netzell, O. (2007). Can space syntax help us in understanding the intraurban office rent pattern? Accessibility and rents in Downtown Stockholm. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 36(3), 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-007-9054-6

Environment Bureau. (2011). Council for sustainable development’s public engagement on combating climate change: energy saving and carbon emission reduction in buildings. Hong Kong: Council for Sustainable Development.

Espey, M., & Lopez, H. (2000). The impact of airport noise and proximity on residential property values. Growth and Change, 31(3), 408-419. https://doi.org/10.1111/0017-4815.00135

Falkenbach, H., Lindhol, H., & Schleich, H. (2010). Environmental sustainability: drivers for the real estate investor. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 18, 203-233.

Fowler, J., & Rauch, E. M. (2008). Assessing green building performance: a post occupancy evaluation of 12 GSA buildings. Pacific Northwest National Library, Richland, Washington.

Fowler, K. M., Rauch, E. M., Henderson, J. W., & Kora, A. R. (2011). Re-assessing green building performance: a post occupancy evaluation of 22 GSA buildings, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Washington.

Fuerst, F., & McAllister, P. (2011). Eco-labeling in commercial office markets: do LEED and Energy Star office obtain multiple premiums? Ecological Economics, 70, 1220-1230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.01.026

Gat, D. (1998). Urban focal points and design quality influence rents: the case of the Tel Aviv office market. Journal of Real Estate Research, 16(2), 229-247.

Gomez, S. (2008). Is the client willing to pay to occupy a greener building? Frankfort: CB Richard Ellis.Gorer, P., Lawson, A., Loh, C., Botelho, A. M. V., & Leao, R. (2008). Green house or greenhouse? Climate change and the building stock of Hong Kong and Macau. Retrieved from https://www.admcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1-Re-source-k_-Green-House-or-Greenhouse-Civic-Exchange-April-2008-.pdf

Gou, Z., & Lau, S. S. Y. (2014). Contextualizing green building rating systems: case study of Hong Kong. Habitat International, 44, 282-289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2014.07.008

Gripne, S., Martel, J. C., & Lewandowski, B. (2012). A market evaluation of Colorado’s high-performance commercial buildings. The Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 4(1), 123-148.

Haapio, A., & Viitaniemi, P. (2008). A critical review of building environmental assessment tools. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 28(7), 469-482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2008.01.002

Heinzle, S. L., Yip, A. B. Y., & Xing, L. Y. (2013). The influence of green building certification schemes on real estate investor behaviour: evidence from Singapore. Urban Studies, 50(10), 1970-1987. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013477693

Hong Kong Green Building Council. (2016). Statistics of BEAM Plus Projects. Retrieved from https://www.hkgbc.org.hk/eng/BEAMPlusStatistics.aspx

Hong Kong Rating and Valuation Department (various issues). (n.d.). Annual property reviews. Retrieved from https://www.rvd.gov.hk/en/

HKSAR Development Bureau. (2011). Considerate Contractors Site Award Scheme. Retrieved from https://www.devb.gov.hk/en/construction_sector_matters/contractors/considerate_ contractors_site/index.html

Ho, D. E., Imai, K., King, G., & Stewart, E. A. (2011). MatchIt: nonparametric preprocessing for parametric causal inference. Journal of Statistical Software, 42(8), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v042.i08

Hui, C. M., Chan, E. W. F., & Yu, K. H. (2015). The effect of LEED certification on Shanghai’s prime office rental value. Journal of Facilities Management, 13(3), 297-310. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFM-10-2014-0033

Hui, E., Tse, C.-kin, & Yu, K.-hung. (2017). The effect of BEAM Plus certification on property price in Hong Kong. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, 21(4), 384-400. https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715X.2017.1409290

Hyland, M., Lyons, R. C., & Lyons, S. (2013). The value of domestic building energy efficiency-evidence from Ireland. Energy Economics, 40, 943-952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.07.020

International Valuation Standards Council. (2017). International Valuation Standards. London, UK.

Jones Lang LaSalle. (2009). Is the Green Light on in Hong Kong? Retrieved from https://www.joneslanglasalle.com/MediaResources/AP/Research/Research/paper-hk-2009-Sustainability.pdf

Kats, G. (2006). Greening America’s schools: cost and benefits, Capital E Report. Retrieved from https://immobilierdurable.eu/images/2128_uploads/Kats_Green_schools_reprint.pdf

Kats, G. (2003). The costs and financial benefits of green buildings: California’s sustainable building task force. Retrieved from https://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/News477.pdf

Ki, C. O., & Wadu Mesthrige, J. (2010). The effects of urban redevelopment on neighbourhood housing prices. International Journal of Urban Sciences, 14(3), 276-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2010.9693685

Kok, N., Miller, N. G., & Morris, P. (2012). The economics of green retrofits. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 4(1), 41-47.

Langdon and Seah. (2018). Quarterly construction cost review. Retrieved from https://images.arcadis.com/media/A/B/8/%7BAB87AD80-242E-4F02-BE2B-53B66A0E23C9%7DHong%20Kong%20Quarterly%20Construction%20Cost%20Review%202018_.pdf

Lee, W., & Burnett, J. (2008). Benchmarking energy use assessment of HK-BEAM, BREEAM and LEED. Building and Environment, 43(11), 1882-1891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2007.11.007

LegCo. (2010). Profile of old buildings in Hong Kong. Retrieved from https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr09-10/english/hc/sub_leg/sc05/papers/sc050209cb1-1163-1-e.pdf

Lucuik, M. A. (2005, March). A business case for the green buildings in Canada. Canada.

Metha, A. (2007, December 5). Towers of steel, feet of clay. The guardian, cities and climate change supplement. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com

Miller, N., Spivey, J., & Florance, A. (2008). Does green pay off? Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, 14(4), 385-399.

Miller, N. G., Progue, D., Gough, Q. S., & Davis, S. M. (2009). Green buildings and productivity. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 1(1), 65-90.

Mohammad, F., & Amato, A. (2006). Public housing and social sustainability indicators: HK-BEAM as a case study. In COBRA 2006 proceedings of the construction and building research conference of the RICS. London: UCL.

Nelson, A. C., Genereux, J., & Genereux, M. (1993). Price effects of landfills on housing values. Land Economics, 68(4), 359-365. https://doi.org/10.2307/3146693

Neter, J., Wasserman, W., & Kutner, M. H. (1989). Applied liner regression models (2 ed.). Homewood, IL: Richard D Irwin.

Orlitzky, M., Schmodt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003). Corporate social and financial performance: a meta-analysis. Organization Studies, 24(3), 403-441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840603024003910

Ozus, E. (2009). Determinants of office rents in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area. European Planning Studies, 17(4), 621-633. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310902811598

Philbrick, D., Scheu, R., & Evens, A. (2014). Valuing the financial benefits of energy efficiency in the multifamily sector. Elevate Energy, US.

Pitts, J., & Jackson, T. O. (2008). Green buildings: valuation issues and perspectives. The Appraisal Journal, 76(2), 115-118.

Raslanas, S., Kliukas, R., & Stasiukynas, A. (2016). Sustainability assessment for recreational buildings. Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, 33(4), 286-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286608.2016.1236086

Reed, R., & Wilkinson, S. (2008). How green can you go? Increasing the value of your home through sustainability. Brisbane: John Wiley and Sons.

Reichardt, A., Fuerst, F., Rottke, N. B., & Zietz, J. (2012). Sustainable building certification and the rent premium: a panel data approach. Journal of Real Estate Research, 34(1), 99-126.

RICS. (2008). Breaking the vicious circle of blame: making the business case for sustainable buildings. London: RICS.

Robinson, S., & McAllister, A. (2015). Heterogeneous price premiums in sustainable real estate? An investigation of the relationship between value and price premiums. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 6, 1-20.

Robinson, S., Simons, R., Lee, E., & Kern, A. (2016). Demand for green buildings: office tenants’ stated willingness-to-pay for green features. Journal of Real Estate Research, 38(3), 423-452.

Robinson, S., & Sanderford, A. (2016). Green buildings: similar to other premium buildings? Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 52(2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-015-9498-z

Roper, K., & Beard, J. (2006). Justifying sustainable buildings – championing green operations. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 8(2), 91-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/14630010610679899

Rosen, S. (1974). Hedonic prices and implicit markets: product differentiation in pure competition. Journal of Political Economy, 82(1), 34-55. https://doi.org/10.1086/260169

Sev, A., Ozgen, A., & Basarir, B. (2011). Design criteria for high-rise buildings in historical cities: the case of Istanbul (CTBUH Research Paper). Retrieved from https://www.ctbuh.org/papers

Sirmans, G. S., Macpherson, D. A., & Zietz, E. N. (2005). A composition of hedonic models. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 13(1), 3-43.

Shimizu, C. (2010). Will green building be appropriately valued by the market? In Environment and real estate investment. The Economic of Value of Green Buildings: Part 2. Japan: Tokio Martine Property Investment management Inc.

Tse, R. Y. C., & Love, P. E. D. (2000). Measuring residential property values in Hong Kong. Property Management, 18(5), 366-374. https://doi.org/10.1108/02637470010360669

US Green Building Council. (2016a). LEED. Retrieved from https://leed.usgbc.org/leed.html

US Green Building Council. (2016b). Project Directory. Retrieved from https://www.usgbc.org/projects

Wadu Mesthrige, J., & Wan, S. M. (2013). Effect of green labelling on residential property price: a study in Hong Kong. Journal of Facilities Management, 11(1), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961311301457

WBCSD. (2008). Collaborative action for energy regional network case study: Hong Kong BEAM: green building label. Retrieved from https://oldwww.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/EDlu2NXcBS ME-JrKtBKHJ/hk-beam.pdf

Wetering, J. V., & Wyatt, P. (2011). Office sustainability: occupier perceptions and implementation of policy. Journal of European Real Estate, 4(1), 29-47. https://doi.org/10.1108/17539261111129452

Wiley, J. A., Benefield, J. D., & Johnson, K. H. (2010). Green design and the market for commercial office space. Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 41(2), 228-243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-008-9142-2

Wilkinson, S., Reed, R., & Cadman, D. (2008). Property development. London: Taylor and Francis.

Yan, H., Shen, Q., Fan, L. C. H., Wang, Y., & Zhang, L. (2010). Greenhouse gas emissions in building construction: a case study of one Peking in Hong Kong. Building and Environment, 45, 949-955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.09.014