Asia-Pacific companies willing to pay higher rent for green buildings to reach net zero carbon goals

Name: China’s ‘vertical forest’ residential complex offers urban green living
Uploaded: 2021-08-05T00:30:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 26 s
Description: China’s ‘vertical forest’ residential complex offers urban green living

While 70 per cent of occupiers in the region are willing to pay a rental premium for green space, compared with 62 per cent in Hong Kong: JLL

Existing supply of green buildings in many regional markets was not enough to meet demand

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Banks and financial companies were likely to be interested in relocating to green buildings because of their interest in green finance. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Cheryl Arcibal

Published: 8:30am, 5 Aug 2021Updated: 8:42pm, 5 Aug 2021

Most companies in the Asia-Pacific are willing to pay a premium to rent space in sustainable buildings as they look to make good on their sustainability pledges, real estate consultancy JLL said.

While 70 per cent of occupiers in the region were willing to pay a rental premium for green space, that ratio was lower at 62 per cent among those in Hong Kong, according to a survey of 550 industry leaders across the region by JLL.

“With 40 per cent of real estate occupiers across Asia-Pacific having already adopted net zero carbon goals and another 40 per cent planning to do so by 2025, green buildings are no longer just ‘nice to have’ if corporates are to follow through on their sustainability pledges,” said James Taylor, head of corporate solutions research for Asia-Pacific at JLL.

He said that companies in the Asia-Pacific were looking to achieve a goal of making 50 per cent of their property portfolios accredited by 2025, but the existing supply of green buildings in many markets was not enough to meet this demand.

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China’s ‘vertical forest’ residential complex offers urban green living

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries from China to the United States have vowed to cooperate to cap peak emissions of greenhouse gases in a bid to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels to slow down the impact of climate change. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged last September that China, the world’s top carbon emitter, would cap its emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

Such growing concern over climate emergency and governments policies around the world were driving companies to take action and transition to net zero carbon, said Mark Cameron, head of energy and sustainability at JLL in Asia Pacific.