Green building features and construction cost in housing project

Abstract

Green building is a building which its construction and lifetime of operation assures the healthiest possible effects on the environment. Green buildings with green features are sustainable buildings and have less harmful effects on the natural environment, resource consumption and human health. Since the global warming issue has worsened and the number of housing is increasing, the role of green features in green housing has become highly important in creating a good sustainable living environment. However, to date, the level of developed green housing is still below the mainstream housing even though Green Building Index (GBI) has been implemented in Malaysia. The objectives of this research are to identify current green features that are applied in housing, to quantify the construction costs of green features that are applied and to identify the factors that influence the acceptance levels of green housing. The scope of the study included collecting data from developers through five case studies of housing projects. Thereafter, structured interviews and document reviews were carried out on either the developer or architect for each of the case study. In addition, questionnaires have been distributed to survey 120 home buyers in Johor. Subsequently, the data was then analysed using content analysis method. Based on the findings, current green features that are mostly applied by housing developers are passive green features such as building orientation, window and daylight. From the perspectives of cost effectiveness and to meet the purpose of comfortable housing, developers will choose to apply passive green features. The study also found that the construction cost of green feature window and daylight is the highest (2.21%). In general, the average construction cost for green features for one unit of house in current Johor housing is average 3.95% of the construction cost. Moreover, based on the findings the main factors that influence the acceptance level of green housing by home buyers is the comfort of green housing followed by the green housing pricing. Further, the research recommends looking into the details of the cost of savings in the long term for green features and developers’ opinions on the perception of the home buyers when it comes to factors that influence their acceptance level of green housing. It is recommended that an indepth study be conducted on green features to study the problems and issues related to improve the green features design.