Us green building initiative may boost commercial property industry

Active property investors might want to pay close attention to a renewed interest in “green” real estate investment trusts, also known as REITs. With the recently announced Better Buildings Initiative, President Obama has pledged new tax incentives and financial products to encourage these asset portfolio companies to retrofit the existing stock of commercial properties.

If these national and local policy efforts begin to work as intended, REITs should be among the first to react. Those REITs taking advantage of new government tax breaks and funds might seize the opportunity to rebrand themselves as best-in-class, high-performance real estate asset portfolios.

Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative has challenged America’s commercial building sector to become 20 percent more energy efficient over the next decade. Among the various measures proposed include converting the current commercial building tax deduction into a more attractive tax credit, working with existing lenders to promote new energy efficiency retrofit loans for small businesses, and providing additional financing opportunities in the form of loan guarantees for energy efficiency upgrades.

If the measures proposed within the Better Buildings Initiative pass into law, REIT fund managers will likely react with a renewed interest in promoting green-driven, high-performance portfolios. Company branding and marketing strategies will inevitably follow suit in the form of press releases, energy performance portfolio listings, new web content, tweets and other creative means to reign in fresh capital. 

Source: Buyers Utopia