According to Jones Lang LaSalle, in Russia today more than 24 buildings have been certified to international environmental standards, including 12 BREEAM, 6 LEED, 5 BREEAM In-Use and 1 project certified both LEED and BREEAM. The total area of certified buildings is 450,000 sqm.
The office segment leads in terms of ‘green’ buildings (43 percent of the total real estate volume certified in Russia), the industrial sector is ranked 2 (31 percent), third position is represented by such specialized schemes as educational facilities. Shopping centres and residential properties share of the total ‘green’ market volume in Russia is not significant.
Christophe Vicic commented: “In the next two years we expect a significant growth of the ‘green’ building market. Thus, until the end of 2015 the total stock of certified offices and warehouses in Russia will reach 1.2 million sqm, and 1.7 million sqm of sport and infrastructure schemes are to be certified as well. As one of the key market drivers we consider the coming international sports events – the Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi and FIFA World Cup 2018; majority of schemes integrated into these events have to be certified to LEED and BREEAM. Besides, the Skolkovo Innovation Centre projects are also implemented in accordance with the ecological standards.”
While the ‘green’ building market is just emerging in Russia, it is already quite developed globally, and provides the opportunity to analyze ‘green’ technologies impact on the real estate market.
“According to the RICS research conducted in the USA – the most developed market in terms of ecological certification – rental rates in ‘green’ building are on average 3 percent higher than in the similar class, but not certified schemes. The asset investment value is on average 7 percent higher when ‘green’ technologies are applied,” Christophe Vicic said. “Having said this we need to clarify – it’s not ‘green’ buildings that increase in price, on the contrary it’s uncertified projects that lose their value as they become less demanded by occupiers and investors.”
Christophe Vicic also said that ‘green’ technologies influence on a property development cost is highly overestimated. “According to the market perception, the cost of implementation of the energy saving solutions increase the overall development cost by 0.9-29 percent when the real experience shows that this indicator does not exceed 0.4 to 12.5 percent which is at least twice lower. With the green market development this index will only fall thanks to new technologies and experience gained in already implemented projects. It ultimately shows the growing expertise in the field,” he concluded. (source: europaproperty.com)
