Do 'Green' Residential Properties Exist in Wroclaw's County?

The policy of European Union is focused mostly on green growth, therefore there is an increasing number of regulations concerning sustainable development. The situation is the same in the matter of life cycle of buildings, where pressure is put on eco-friendly solutions. The purpose of the paper is to describe the green residential real estate market in Wroclaw's county and to characterize its main attributes.The paper closely examines put to use, 'green' residential properties. The research studies statistical and real estate data from government agencies, such as District Inspector of Building Control for Wroclaw's county and Cadastre office of Wroclaw's county. The information gathered allows marking out energy efficient residential buildings and determining their value. The research shows that 'green' residential buildings have just a small share in the real estate market of new buildings. The result of the study indicates that just a few of those buildings were sold by the end of the year 2012. Furthermore almost all of 'green' houses were constructed by their owners. An interest in energy efficiency can be the result of the increased willingness to reduce the operating costs of the property. By analyzing the information gathered, the most popular eco-friendly solutions used in buildings (such as: solar panels, heat pumps, biomass boilers) were identified. The research estimates the actual value of 'green' buildings. One of the research limitations was the quality of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). Even if the EPC was done according to the national approach it may give misleading information about energy efficiency of the building. In the future a further research on the effectiveness and correctness of EPC is necessary. The paper is unique in the field of real estate in Poland as it concentrates on the residential real estate in regards to sustainable development. The results of the research can be useful to valuers and investors since it gives genuine data on the green residential buildings market in Wroclaw's county.