Tenant's preference for green office building feature

Abstract

In response to the impact of climate change and the use/cost of energy and other resources, the property industry has become increasingly focused on establishing and implementing sustainability practices. Increasingly, both building owners and tenants are looking to build and occupy commercial buildings that are energy efficient, have a low- or zero-carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices. The development of the Green Building Index (GBI) is the move to provide a standard guide to developers or managers for the development and rating of green buildings in Malaysia. As such, there has been an increasing awareness of the green building movement for commercial buildings. Though this is the case, earlier studies of the office preference by tenants revealed low preference for green building features of office buildings in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. This paper summarises the important factors that were preferred by these tenants under the four main areas that include: location, financial, lease and building features, as well as indicating the preference for sustainable/green building features.