Sustainable Real Estate in India

New Delhi, September 16, 2016: The Global and Indian corporates have showna great zeal in green commercial building projects since the past few years. The increasing enthusiasm of corporates has led to a heightened availability of commercial green products.

The residential segment has also witnessed a considerable hike in ‘green’ growth. Investors from diverse organizations such as International Finance Corporation, UK Government’s Department of International Development (DFID), and the National Housing Bank have also noticeably stimulated this segment.

Nowadays, many developers realize that green certification might attract more investors and clients, and so they are engaging in green concepts. Unfortunately, there is a substantial supply gap, and a dire need to create awareness among end-users.

Support from banks in terms of loans is a must for investments. Till the banks and leading agencies are not made aware of the advantages of green real estate, they will not encourage investments in this sector. Hence, it is essential to convey the importance of green real estate to the financial bodies.

As far as commercial properties are concerned, there is a need for transparency on who will draw the profit – the owner or the tenant. For this, all the codes are required to be mandatory. Most importantly, the code of Energy Conversation Building needs to be simplified. Also, the State Governments need to assure that the code is made mandatory by all the local bodies.

At the moment, the urban local bodies do not have sufficient resources for its implementation.

Ø Irrefutable benefits

The implementation of this concept will save water through rainwater harvesting and reuse of waste water. It will also help in garnering benefits from the water energy center.

The compounded yearly growth rate of power in the residential domain is over 8%. A significant percentage, i.e., about 1/3^rd of the electricity is spent on commercial and residential buildings.

Be it energy or water, the benefits to the tune of 25% is easily achievable. The green building concept will also prove helpful for cities where waste disposal is a major concern.

Ø Allowances and Concessions

According to a report of TOI (2012), Chennai was the home to a maximum number of greenhouse structures. About 42 houses in Chennai (out of 212 structures in India) were certified as Eco-friendly. However, nowadays, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Noida, and Pune are some other Indian cities that give allowances and concessions for green building development.

These allowances entail high property tax incentives and high FAR by local bodies like Pune Eco-housing programme and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

Associating property tax to real performance and necessitating an easy region-specific index will be of great help in achieving green goals quicker and in more cities.

Ø A universal approach is better than a piece-meal approach

The good effects will accrue quickly when green construction guidelines are necessitated and implemented by all the stakeholders involved like urban local bodies (development authorities and municipalities), builders, tenants, owners, pollution control bodies, electricity distribution companies, sewerage departments, and the state and central governments.

Ø Now is the time

Undoubtedly, the population growth in most of the urban and urbanized parts is increasing their ability to shelter people.

Unsustainable development eventually leads to environmental changes that must be curtailed. The burden of environmental deterioration should not be put on sustainable real estate alone.

However, designing green real estate is one of the great solutions to curb harmful emissions. Hence, it is essential to create high awareness of these green developments. Consumers must know the long-term benefits of such constructions.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)