IMPACT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON PROPERTY VALUES

Abstract

This research paper investigates the impact of sustainable development on property values in Singapore. With the increase in environmental and health issues and with buildings responsible for 40% of the greenhouse gases released, it is important that countries should invest time and effort in research as well as promote the awareness and acceptance of sustainable developments. In Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority has set up the Green Mark as a standard to assess the level of sustainability in a development. However, the concept of sustainable development is still in its infancy phase. Thus, this research will lend a hand in studying the general public as well as the real estate professionals' point of view on the concept of sustainable development. It has been identified that energy efficiency, increase corporate image and difficulty in quantifying the benefits were all ranked as the respondents' top choice in sustainability criteria, benefit of sustainable development respectively. Hence, from this study, developers can construct developments based on the criteria that the respondents felt that represents sustainable development best. Moreover, they can also reflect on the benefits that the respondents ranked as being associated with sustainable development. Education can also be conducted to address the barriers to sustainable development so that the concept will be more widely embraced. Moreover, the respondents were also asked to, in their opinion, to estimate the impact that sustainable development would have on rental and capital values. The study revealed that sustainable development would have a greater impact on capital values as compared to rental values. As such, the predominant perception of the value increase is between the ranges of 0% to 10%. In conclusion, sustainable development does have an impact on property values.