Green homes set to generate price premiums, it is suggested

Innovative new properties, such as those built with integrated solar panels to heat water or generate electricity, are beginning to generate a price premium for investors and home owners over conventionally built existing ones, it is claimed.

New research by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, finds that homes with solar PV in California have sold for a price premium of approximately $17,000 for a relatively new 3,100 watt (kWh) PV system.

And a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) information paper, entitled Sustainability and Residential Property Valuation, advised valuers that a home’s sustainability characteristics, for example its energy efficiency rating, the materials used in its construction and other features such as an energy-efficient boiler, should be considered within property valuations.

Anwar Harland-Khan, chief executive officer of Sustain Worldwide, which is an élite membership organisation of the world’s leading sustainable property developers and architects, said that the two papers support the company’s long held contention that there is an inherent price premium in sustainably built new assets.

Source: PropertyCommunity.com