BuildGreen, a leading consultant in the field of sustainable building design, development and certification in Central and Eastern Europe, ended the first semester of 2016 with 30% more projects and is expected to close the year with a portfolio of approximately 2 million sq.m. of certified properties.
In the first semester of 2016, BuildGreen signed 19 new agreements, representing over a 30% increase in its number of projects, including landmark properties owned by large real estate investors in Romania and abroad. By the end of the year, the new projects will add up more than 800.000 sq.m. to the existing 1,2 million sq.m. of properties assisted to date by BuildGreen, almost doubling the company’s portfolio and leading to a new milestone in its expansion in the CEE region.
“Sustainable certifications are steadily gaining their well-deserved place as a management tool for efficient development in CEE countries, supported by three major market trends: (1) a spectacular increase of the demand from the retail, industrial and residential segments, (2) the expansion of the “green” wave outside the Capital city and (3) the arrival of a new type of client: the end-user. The latter, in particular, is a market novelty for Romania in 2016 – This year we witnessed an increasing number of requests for owner-occupied properties targeting a sustainability certificate and have already started to work on 3 such projects. While professional developers continue to dominate the market, the increase of the end-user-driven demand represents a major tipping point for adopting sustainable building practices across the entire CEE region”, states Razvan Nica, Managing Director BuildGreen.
With regard to property types, the office segment continues to be a strong driver of sustainability in Romania, but the industrial and retail segments are quickly catching up. Of all the new sustainability projects started by BuildGreen this year, almost 60% are retail and industrial properties.
Another major market trend is represented by the expansion of the „green wave” outside the Capital city of Romania. While Bucharest remains the leading city in terms of the number of certified properties, the year brought some outstanding achievements and market premieres in secondary cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Brasov and Timisoara. The list of breaking records or market premieres includes the certification of Moldova Center (BREEAM Very Good – the highest sustainability ranking for an office building in Iași), Coresi Business Park (BREEAM Very Good – the first certified sustainable building in Brașov), followed shortly by CORESI Shopping Resort (BREEAM Excellent – the first retail project to obtain this high sustainability ranking in Romania and the second one in CEE markets). All these certification projects were managed by BuildGreen.
In conclusion, the year 2016 advances on positive grounds for sustainable development in Romania. With the market back on track, many new high-quality projects are reshaping the city skylines and the approach to sustainability. Since the beginning of the year, over 30 commercial properties in Romania received an international certificate of sustainability or are currently undergoing the certification process.
“<Green> became a <must> and developers are paying increasing attention to the ratio between investments and actual benefits of sustainable building. Moreover, the most popular certification schemes – BREEAM and LEED – are being updated this year, which will further impact all market players seeking to align their business practices to the global sustainability standards”, concludes Razvan Nica.
