Real Estate Valuation and Valuing Sustainability: A Case Study of Australia

Abstract

Interest in and implementation of sustainability in the real estate market reached its heights prior to the Global Financial Crisis in Australia. Post-2008, sustainability has been on the backburner as funds and REITS struggle to maintain financial viability and control of their debt. This has seen a rationalization of sustainability within the commercial real estate sector, but has also allowed other stakeholders in the market to catch up and ascertain the different opportunities sustainability provides in terms of value in the real estate market.This paper examines the development of sustainability in the Australian commercial real estate market from the valuers’ perspective. The value of sustainability in commercial real estate is still relatively uncertain, primarily because valuers are uncertain of the influence and impact sustainability has on real estate market values. However, market maturation and development will assist valuers’ understanding and development of heuristics, which will in time allow for reflection of sustainability in valuation practice.The paper is part of a larger research project that is tracking valuers’ development of knowledge over time in order to ascertain the levels of consideration in heuristic-based valuation practice. This paper reports on valuers’ perceptions of the market changes in sustainability adoption and value in the Australian real estate market from 2007 to 2011.