Assessing the impact valuing green features on buildings would have in promotion of green building technologies in Uganda

Abstract

The increasing need to promote sustainability in the construction industry has led to the growth of adoption of green building features in the construction process globally. Despite the increasing awareness of this concept, property investors/developers are not really adopting Green Building Technologies in Uganda’s construction industry. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to provide insight on the adoption of GBTs in other countries and consideration of their value during the valuation process. This research paper is aimed at assessing how valuing green features can impact the adoption of these technologies. This was done by coming up with four objectives in order to find out the level of awareness of the green building concept, the most common green features being adopted, how often valuers interact with buildings that have green features and the methods used to value them, from which, research questions were generated. Questionnaire surveys were used to collect data from forty respondents in the construction industry and valuation industry and this data was analyzed and the results presented. The findings reveal that there is a relatively high level of awareness of the green building concept among valuers and property developers and the most common green features identified include Rain Water Harvesting, Natural lighting, Energy efficient fixtures and Natural ventilation. However, the valuation of these features is still low due to lack of standardization and policies that guide the valuation of these features. The paper concludes that in order to successfully assess the impact of green features on the value of property, the country should adopt a suitable system for valuing these features and educate valuers more on what green features they should consider during the valuation process and to what extent.