A very relevant roundtable titled “Extreme Weather Events and Energy Efficiency as Decision Determinants” took place on Monday, March 16th in Athens. Co-organized by LDK Consultants, Green Value associates, Arbitrage Real Estate Surveyors, and AON Risk Solutions, it was attended by more than 110 representatives of real estate investment funds, appraisers, real estate development advisors, energy efficiency and envirommental consultants.
Stavros Damianidis, Executive Director of LDK Consultants, opened the event by stating that “global climate change is a reality that affects the price, energy performance and insurance premiums of buildings, but Greece has been in many ways privileged with a very low occurrence of extreme weather events. This does not mean that Greece should not pay attention to developing or refurbishing buildings with the principles of climate resilience, sustainability and energy efficiency. After all, the buzzwords of our era, climate resilience, informed investments and sustainability should be drivers in a country where there is a very interesting buildings' stock (offices, old but interesting hotels etc). In the next years, if the financial situation in Greece embetters, many investors from abroad will be looking at the greek market and the developers and investors who will focus their efforts on high-class, resilient buildings will definitely manage to sell or rent at a premium price”.
It was emphasized by Mr Ioannis Orfanos, of Green Value Associates, that owners of real estate should have more motives either through subsidies or through tax exemptions, in order to proceed to energy upgrading/refurbishment for renewal of the existing building stock and to keep the prices to acceptable levels.
