Integration of Sustainability Aspects into Property Valuation

The actors in the fields of construction/building industry and real estate, banking and insurance as well as fund/stock management intensively deal with the subject what consequence a stronger consideration of principles of sustainable development will have on each particular core business. These actors furthermore deal with the question of how they can integrate sustainability aspects into their existing methods, tools and strategies. The paper illustrates the relevance of enhancing methods for property valuation and property rating for raising the demand for sustainable buildings. It describes the activities of several initiatives and projects, amongst others the Green Building Finance Consortiums, the UNEP Sustainable Building Construction Initiative (SBCI) and the UNEP FI Property Working Group (PWG), regarding the description of economic consequences of ecological benefits and the integration of sustainability aspects into property valuation methods. In the following the paper introduces and discusses a concept for describing and assessing an integrated building performance. Presently the basis for reporting and evaluating particularly the ecological quality of buildings is provided by European and international standardisation organisations. Most of these activities have not been noticed by the groups mentioned above up to now. Finally the paper presents existing methods and tools for assessing the contribution of buildings to a sustainable development, as well as some trends and problems which are identifiable at the moment in this field.