Property tax assessment incentives for green building: A review

The development of green building has received the attention of various levels of government around the globe, including from local authorities. There are two main categories of incentives provided by local authorities as a means of encouraging the development of green building, which include financial and structural incentives. It has been found that financial incentives, in particular property tax assessment incentives, have been widely adopted by several Commonwealth countries around the globe including Spain, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, the United States, Canada, Malaysia and India. The practice of providing property tax assessment incentives within the green building field has been empirically documented by several researchers, in order to encourage the growth of numbers of green building instances at a local level. However, no comprehensive academic study has been conducted to review the effect of this incentive on the development of green building. Therefore the purpose of this study has been to review and discuss the available models and bases adopted, in order to develop this incentive. There are three types of property tax assessment incentive models that have been identified as available for encouraging the development of green building, which include reductions, exemptions and rebates. These incentives were developed based on four identified bases, which specifically include the increased amounts of property tax assessments of completed green buildings, the costs of green components, the rate imposed on property tax assessments, and the level of green certification. The findings identified that most property tax assessment incentive models regarding green buildings were developed on the basis of the value of green components, specifically the increased amount of property tax assessments of green buildings, and the costs of green components.