KOMMERSANT DOM:Fighting for Green
19 June 2014
KOMMERSANT DOM: Fighting for Green
The main criteria
As explained by Denis Bobkov, head of the analytical center "OPIN", the real estate market criteria of green construction are rather vague. On the one hand, developers are increasingly "selling eco-friendliness", often stressing the natural advantages of the territory; on the other hand, the market has no clearly defined standards.
"While buyers are driven by the offer, and few are familiar with the green rating (assessment) system," says the expert. According to Managing Director of ZIP Realty Evgeniy Skomorovski, in Russian practice, the term "green" has long been used mainly for marketing purposes and understood as the use of ventilated facades for urban housing , wooden architecture, glued laminated timber, and, in a broader sense, any natural materials for the suburban real estate market ."Most often, they focus on the quality of the materials used in construction, from concrete and brick to interior decoration," says head of City Sales at Knight Frank Russia, Olga Tarakanova. However, in reality green construction has much more criteria.
"The concept of "green" building includes a variety of components: the noise level and the presence of contaminants in the air, and a number of other conditions. This is why today more and more people are looking to buy a house in a place where they can enjoy fresh air after the polluted streets of the metropolitan city," says General Director of the Moscow office of ROSSA RAKENNE SPb — HONKA exclusive distributor in Russia Alexander Lvovsky. For example, a country estate should be seamlessly integrated into the natural environment while having a well-developed infrastructure, both inside and outside the project, he explains. "Eco-friendly real estate is a property built upon the principles of high quality construction with minimal environmental impact and the use of energy-efficient and resource-saving technologies," says head of WELHOME Department for Real Estate Consulting Zhanna Lebedeva. According to Ms Lebedeva, to get the British "green" BREEAM certificate one needs to be assessed in the ten areas, from management and efficient use of resources to level of local air and water pollution. Another feature of this evaluation system is the method of awarding scores in several sections: life safety, environmental impact and comfort. The scores are multiplied by weight coefficients reflecting the relative importance of each aspects for the place of development, and then summed up to get the final grade. Moreover, the tradition of "green" development, says Maria Litinetskaya, chief executive of Metrium Group, involves the use of alternative energy sources, non-waste recycling, etc.
A Rare Offer
There is a number of systems of Compliance Assessment for environmentally sustainable and energy efficient buildings, experts say. International standards of quality construction are developed on the basis of these systems. American rating system The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the British certification program Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) are among the most popular standards in Russia. Buildings certified by such systems relate mainly to commercial property, but among residential projects there are also objects that may qualify for these certificates. "Barkley" was one of the first developers in the housing segment who began to focus on the environmental aspects of the projects, comments Konstantin Kovalev, Managing Partner at Blackwood. In particular, the residential complex "Barkley Park" became the only Russian residential applicant seeking American LEED Environmental Certification, but without success.
"When we launched a new project "Barkley Park" we positioned it as the first green residential complex. We planned to get environmental certificate from American LEED rating system, but faced with an array of problems and had to abandon the idea," Barkli’s commercial director Yekaterina Fonareva says. One of the crucial conditions of LEED certification is that the developer must only work with their contractors: there were specific recommendations where to purchase concrete, reinforcement and so forth. "But the difficulty lies in the fact that their experts should be be involved in the project at the initial stage of designing the house, because there are so many parameters that must be considered and integrated in the project from the start," the expert says. Besides, adds Yekaterina Fonareva, LEED standards are not adapted to the Russian SNiP codes. As a result, the company has refused to seek the certification. However "Barkley" continues to position itself as "green" company - for example, in its projects "Barkley" uses a three-stage water purification system which allows to produce water free of dissolved organic, organochlorine compounds, and salts of heavy metals. The Barkli Virgin House residential complex also boasts Zenhder two-pipe heating system with thermostats and heat meters; and a new Barkli Residence project offers Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRF) air-condition system. The main difference between VRF and conventional air conditioners is thermal stability: the heating or cooling is controlled by the electronic "expansion" valve, so there is no need to turn it on/off.
Club mansions in the Knightsbridge Private Park are currently passing the BREEAM certification. Knightsbridge Private Park may become the first residential facility in the Moscow region to receive such certification. "In fact, we have become the first developer in Moscow whose residential project is seeking BREEAM certification. But in our case, the logic went like this: as we started working on the quality of the Knightsbridge Private Park residential quarter, at some point we came to realize that the complex is largely meets the British BREEAM standards," says Timur Sukharev, Commercial Director of Restavracia N (the developer of the Knightsbridge Private Park). As Timur Sukharev specifies, the developer of the project uses only natural construction and finishing materials. In particular, brick production eliminates the use of harmful chemicals. The complex also features a number of ergonomic systems - multi-stage water filtration, custom made glass units preventing unwanted radiation from entering the building, as well as energy saving mechanisms throughout the facilities.
The suburban real estate market has a system of voluntary environmental certification called EcoVillage."There are several major "green" characteristics to be assessed - direction-specific features, the effects of the project on the natural environment, the availability of the necessary infrastructure," says Denis Bobkov. Specifically, OPIN implements "Rublyovo Park Residential Complex " that was awarded Eco Village certificate. One more company, "Peresvet Invest" has got Eco Village status for its FreeDom cottage settlement ."It gives buyers confidence that the environment effects their health and the health of their children only in a beneficial way," says "Peresvet Invest" Deputy Director of Marketing Irina Kirsanova. FreeDom cottage settlement has undergone a series of examinations to get the status of green community. The soil has successfully passed toxicological, radiological, microbiological and parasitological tests.
Some companies pay attention to the specific areas of "green" construction, especially in the suburban real estate market. "Today each of the materials produced in the company's factories is certified by VTT - National Technical Research Centre of Finland. This guarantees compliance with the standards in the production process. And the company was certified by PEFC as well," says Alexander Lvovsky. The same applies to the use of special construction materials. "For example, in our "Skolkovo Park" complex, anticipating the most demanding customer needs, we had initially decided to use only eco-friendly materials - brick, mineral wool as insulation, natural sandstone for facades, aluminium for window frames," said the Head of Marketing Department at property management company Millhouse Stanislav Lobanov. "In our Millennium Park, Madison Park and Monteville settlements we utilize rainwater harvesting technology. The water is then used for outdoor watering and irrigation of recreational areas and other technical needs. We never use non-certified building materials: for construction of houses we use brick and clay tile, for windows we use double-glazed units with wooden frames," says Director of Marketing at Villagio Estate Anton Gololobov.
A matter of perspective
According to Denis Bobkov, the environmental component of the project increases the price on average by 10-15%, in some cases this immediately means the higher class of the object. Therefore, as a rule, "green" real estate today is concentrated in the most expensive segments of the housing market. Catherine Fonareva says environmental compliance certification can increase the cost of the project by up to 30%. "The use of green technologies increases the cost of the project, which, of course, is reflected in the final price. Whereas Russian customers today are concerned with the budget matter in the first place. Even in commercial real estate and elite housing segments buyers have become more price-sensitive ",- says Maria Litinetskaya. She notes that with this approach housing user-friendliness takes second billing."Buyers looking for the appropriate object can still pay attention to the ecological environment. But if, for example, the buyer is not quite happy with this aspect, the price and transport accessibility meeting his expectations, he is very unlikely to refuse to buy the apartment ," says Alexander Zubets, General Director of New Vatutinki LLC.
However, with increased competition in the market, ecology has become an important factor for the buyers, even in the low end real estate market sector. It is notable that the 'eco-' prefix is being increasingly used in the names of residential complexes," says Annа Levitova, managing partner at Evans Property Services. Most recent examples are the residential project being built in Naro-Fominsk district, "Ecopark Gorchakovo" (50-60 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m.) and "Ekograd Obuhovo" (40-47 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m.) that is not being completed in Noginsky district. "Today, developers are looking for innovative solutions. We expect to see the growing number of projects certified as "green" and this number is likely to double particularly on account of premium residential projects ," says Denis Bobkov. According to him, as soon as the share of such "green" projects in multifamily housing becomes significant, the buyer will pay more attention to environmental characteristics as one of the main features of the project. Managing partner of Tweed Real Estate Irina Mogilatova says that luxury real estate buyers today are paying very close attention to green residential complexes."Green technologies and materials is not just a developer's marketing ploy, but the factor that affects customers choice. All other things being equal, buyers prefer houses built according to green construction principles," said the expert.
However eco-housing development, according to experts, is impossible without creating Russia's own certification system."All the international environmental standards were established as national certification systems and focused on national building regulations, national legislation, and national metric system. Russia has different legislation and regulations, the country has 11 climatic zones, whereas, for example, England is a single zone," says Anna Levitova. Head of department of Design Preparation and Object Management Department of "Profine Rus" Alexander Artiushin recalls that the first normative document in the construction field has become effective on January 2013 - GOST R 54964-2012 "Conformity Assessment. Environmental requirements for estate properties”. " This standard establishes environmental requirements for real estate and should be applied during the design, construction, renovation and operation. However, says Eugeniy Skomorovsky, this document is more of a framework and sets general criteria for evaluation.
Source: Kommersant Dom