Founding facts for the green agenda in commercial real estate portfolios - current pay-off evidence from Europe

Abstract

The real estate sector has great potential to reduce the carbon footprint due to its large number of employed people and its resource- and energy-intensive production and maintenance process.Countless empirical studies have shown that Green Buildings generate additional value in terms of transaction prices and rents. Most of their conclusions, though, are limited to specific submarkets, regions or specific aspects of sustainability. These limitations reduce significantly the reliability of their conclusions. In this context, the extensive green payoff evidence of some studies will have to be discussed. Hypothetically, not all relevant control factors have been accounted for appropriately which might result in an overestimated value of being green.A hedonic regression will be applied to analyse the Green Payoff of a portfolio of 160 European office buildings held by a German investment management firm from 2011 to 2014. Our analysis extends findings of existing payoff studies as it includes not only sustainability certificates, but also green leases, actual consumption data, tenant satisfaction and undertaken refurbishments. In a second step, another factor will be included in the regression framework – the influence of super trophy status. After having controlled for large surface areas, unique architecture, excellent quality of amenities, building height, prominence and return characteristics, what can we conclude about the statistical significance and the size of Green Premia? How do these findings compare to the existing evidence of green payoff literature on benefits of sustainable commercial real estate in Europe?