The Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) has launched the 4th Edition of the internationally acclaimed research study: Green Building in South Africa: A Guide to Costs and Trends.
Along with a strong business case for building green, the report shows that in our maturing green industry, green building certification is good for business as well as for our planet and people.
Since 2014, the GBCSA has partnered with the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) and the Department of Construction Economics at the University of Pretoria (UP) to produce relevant research that moves the industry forward. This has resulted in Southern Africa’s definitive study on the cost of green-certified buildings, using empirical building costing data to understand how little going green truly costs, and the ways in which the market for sustainable properties is changing.
This year, for the first time, these costs are connected to the investment performance of certified buildings, delivering a clear ‘Green Building Business Case’. Lisa Reynolds, CEO of GBCSA, says they are excited to share the findings of the study, answering the question: “What is the real cost of green?” and making the strongest business case to date for building sustainably.
She says, “Property owners need to understand that certification isn’t the end goal. It’s how you prove that a building is actually performing in practice and on paper. It gives owners, investors, and tenants confidence that a building will deliver environmental and financial value over time.”
The 4th edition builds on prior research and begins to explore the data around green investment returns as well as green costs. This impressive partnership spanning almost 10 years, continues the collaboration between GBCSA, ASAQS, and UP, and is now generously supported by data from the MSCI South Africa Green Annual Property Index. It expands on the subject matter of previous editions to bring both green cost and green returns together into the flagship Business Case for Green Buildings.
The report is based on empirical costing data from 199 Green Star certified office buildings, that has been analysed to distil the specific green cost from each project’s overall spending. The projects studied cover a range of certification levels, project sizes, and project locations.
Dr Danie Hoffman, lead researcher, Department of Construction Economics at UP, says they are pleased to share what is now a scientifically sound and academically valid metric for industry use: “The study confirmed a very modest and constantly declining green building ‘cost premium’ (GBCP) that totally refutes the often held perception of an unaffordable cost of green building. Green certification and the GBCP also unlock the superior operational performance of green buildings for property owners, as repeatedly confirmed by MSCI Property Index.”
Georgina Smit, head of technical and executive director, GBCSA, says: “The report reflects that the average green cost premium for office projects certified in the period 2022 – 2024 has positively decreased from 3,15% for the previous period 2019 – 2021, to 2,40%. The average since 2009 for the green cost premium as expressed by the median has reduced from 5,95% to 3,43%. But what is particularly pleasing is that there is now clear evidence that these green buildings are more profitable in the long run, so it is an investment that just makes business sense.”
**Download the full report on the GBCSA website here: