Commercial property whole-life costing and the taxation environment

Abstract

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is the incorporation of life-cycle costs (LCC) and whole-life costing (WLC) method and the taxation environment into the investment appraisal procedure for commercial real property projects. Design/methodology/approach – The paper initially presents the methodologies of LCC and WLC together with the NPV measure for the evaluation of real estate investments. These methods are incorporated into a decision-making model using mathematical approaches. The model is applied to a typical commercial property project (office building) in order to explore the significance of impacts from changes in structured variables and the taxation environment by introducing direct, indirect and property taxes in the evaluation of commercial real estate projects. Findings – Testing of the methodology on the Greek economic environment revealed that time, cost, the tax regime, the financial variables of funding and the monetary and fiscal environment in a commercial real property project are the main variables of net present value (NPV) of the investment. Practical implications – From the calibration of any impact from affected variables, decision-making aiding tools can be extracted for controlling the project throughout its entire life-cycle. Originality/value – An integrated WLC mathematical model for the investment appraisal of commercial property projects is introduced. The herein proposed methodology contributes to taxation policy and real estate theory in general and assists industry professionals in effective commercial property management and decision-making.