Green homes to make you green with envy

The energy performance of property is becoming increasingly important for buyers and sellers. Patricia Kelly reports.

Public buildings and properties of more than 1,000 square metres in Belgium will soon be subject to an energy performance audit to demonstrate how green they are in terms of insulation and energy expenditure - legislation is already in place in Flanders with Brussels and Wallonia not far behind.

A similar verification procedure for private property is on the cards and houses and apart-ments will soon require an energy certificate by law before they can be rented or sold. The objective is to show prospective buyers or tenants exactly how much the property that they are interested in will cost to run.

Upmarket estate agent Philippe Rosy of Engel & Volkers is jumping the legislative gun with plans to stick a green label on properties that go through the agency’s books.

With the franchise of this international network for Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Monaco, Rosy has prepared a check-list designed to show clients at a glance whether a property qualifies as green in terms of heating, insulation, building materials and availability of alternative energy sources. A property that does not tick all the boxes will be classed as orange or, in a worse case scenario, as red. Rosy agrees that vendors with a red-rated house are likely to want to opt out of the green label, but justifies his scheme because he says prospective buyers increasingly want to know about a property’s green credentials. He says that he believes it will become increasingly difficult to move property that does not meet the latest environmental standards and predicts that current financial incentives persuading property holders to go green will eventually become penalties for those which do not make the grade.

Strategically situated in the neo-classical pavilions that guard the Avenue Louise entrance to the Bois de la Cambre, Rosy has plans to open 30 branches of E&V in Belgium, five in Luxembourg and more than 100 in France over the next five or six years. He says the network has committed itself worldwide (it boasts a presence in 23 countries on five continents) to going green. The week of mandatory training that E&V agents undergo when they start with the company will now include a half day of instruction showing them how to carry out an ecological survey of a property. Rosy says they are already driving hybrid or low-emission cars and claims they will be using bicycles for local journeys.

They are also aiming at zero paper in the offices and environmentally friendly ink and paper in instances where the zero targets cannot be met. This is quite a challenge in itself because the organisation deals with property at the top end of the market which traditionally involves expensively produced brochures as part of the marketing strategy. E&V goes one step further by also publishing and distributing an upmarket glossy lifestyle quarterly magazine of some 180 pages in the mould of a Vogue or an Elle, showcasing some of the more luxurious properties on its books around the world. GG, shorthand for Global Guide, is titillating pornography for property addicts, page upon page of pictures of sexy but unattainable houses to drool over in the privacy of an inferior home.

• Patricia Kelly is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

The energy performance of property is becoming increasingly important for buyers and sellers. Patricia Kelly reports.