A multi stakeholder group of built environment experts launched “Valuing Sustainability”, a suite of training materials for valuation professionals with regard to considering sustainable building features in their daily practice.
The training material has been developed over a 2-year period to provide valuation professionals with a more profound knowledge base regarding, inter alia, the impact of sustainability features on various economic building performance aspects, respective information sources, as well as methodological and theoretical guidance so that valuation professionals can appropriately factor energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and wider sustainability issues into the valuation process and advise their clients accordingly.
The RenoValue material is available in eight languages and consists of a face-to-face tool that can be used as training support by professional training providers, professional valuation organisations and other real estate market participants and interactive eLearning modules hosted on the RICS Online Academy. Both versions are free and participants of the online version receive a RenoValue certificate upon completion of the course.
“In many markets, there is a current lack of knowledge and understanding of how to consider energy efficiency and other sustainability aspects by valuation professionals when assessing the value of buildings” said Ursula Hartenberger, Global Head of Sustainability at RICS. “Recent empirical studies confirm that sustainable buildings potentially command higher sales or rental premiums. With the training material published we hope to address the skills and knowledge gaps that currently hinder a better understanding of the link between energy performance and the value of buildings. We want to help valuation professionals to offer their clients evidence-based advice and transparent, qualitative judgment on sustainability-related issues during the transaction phase.”
The training material is the result of extensive market research, stakeholder consultation and piloting programms with about 400 professionals from across 8 European countries including Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK.
“Valuers play a key role in several phases of the building lifecycle. The launch of the RenoValue training material is an important step on the way to full integration of sustainable building features into the existing canon of value determining factors and to market transformation towards a more sustainable and energy efficient building stock in Europe,” concluded Ms Hartenberger.
