Market participants tend to be critical of the sustainability performance of architectural monuments
Colliers presents the first edition of the new “ESG Dialog” format, which sheds light on the role of architectural monuments in the context of sustainability and ESG requirements in the real estate industry. The paper “ESG Dialogue: Architectural Monuments & Sustainability” combines the perspectives of investors, owners, portfolio developers and consultants in the form of specialist articles and interviews and offers an overview of regulatory frameworks, market assessments and solutions.
The paper shows that despite complex challenges, architectural monuments offer opportunities for economic and sustainable portfolio development. Legal regulations are now increasingly placing climate protection measures above monument protection, thus opening up room for manoeuvre for owners and investors.
The study also includes a survey of asset, fund, portfolio and transaction managers conducted by Colliers as well as a statistical evaluation of the proportion of listed commercial properties in German cities by the geomarketing provider Nexiga. According to the study, Düsseldorf is the frontrunner with a listed building share of over 18 percent of buildings with commercial use, followed by Leipzig with 8 percent. The proportion of companies based in a listed building in the two cities is correspondingly high.
The majority of listed buildings in Germany date from before 1900. At the same time, Markus Kelzenberg, Managing Director of DGNB GmbH, points out that there are also buildings classified as worthy of preservation among the post-war buildings where renovations are particularly challenging due to pollutant loads.
Regulations open up new opportunities for owners and investors
Climate protection is considered an overriding public interest that increasingly takes precedence over the concerns of monument protection. This is regulated by new legal developments and court rulings, which increasingly place climate protection measures such as solar systems and energy-efficient renovations above monument protection. Only in exceptional cases can monument protection still prevail.
“Today, architectural monuments have to meet the same sustainability requirements as any other asset. Although many market participants are critical of the sustainability performance and potential of architectural monuments, in practice monument protection is not a contradiction to sustainability,” says Till Brühöfener-McCourt, Head of ESG Services at Colliers in Germany. For example, there are numerous synergy effects in the DGNB certification system and the protection of architectural monuments, which the paper shows.
Experts see compatibility of monument protection and sustainability
While market participants predominantly assess the sustainability performance of listed buildings negatively, experts, including those from the fields of portfolio development and consulting, show that monument protection and sustainability are not mutually exclusive in interdisciplinary planning, also with regard to economic efficiency.
“Integrated planning, the early involvement of all parties involved, the exhaustion of legal framework conditions and a clever mix of subsidies are crucial for successful sustainability certification in the listed building. This makes the listed building not only a showcase project in terms of sustainability, but also convinces with a unique profile that other properties hardly offer. With our ESG dialogue, we create more market transparency and show challenges and solutions in a compact way,” concludes Brühöfener-McCourt .
The paper is available for download here.
