Corporate real estate (CRE) executives are less likely to be willing to pay a premium for green office space than they were a year ago, even though more of them see energy and sustainability as a business priority, according to a new survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Of more than 400 CRE executives surveyed, 69 percent said sustainability is a critical business issue for their real estate departments. When CoreNet and Jones Lang LaSalle asked the same question in
2007, 47 percent said it was a critical issue. Furthermore, 40 percent this year rated energy and sustainability as a "major factor" in their companies' location decisions, with an additional 36 percent calling it a
"tie-breaker" between locations that are otherwise competitive.
Despite the high level of importance companies place on sustainability, however, only 42 percent of CRE executives are now willing to pay a premium (usually 1 to 5 percent) to lease green space, and 53 percent said they
would pay a premium to retrofit property they own to gain sustainability benefits. In the 2007 CoreNet-JLL survey, 77% said they were willing to pay some level of premium for green space.
Source: CoreNet Global/Jones Lang LaSalle