Rethinking The Australian Office

HOW CAN LANDLORDS POSITION THEIR ASSETS?

ALTHOUGH INVESTING IN THE QUALITY OF A BUILDING LEADS TO INCREASED INCOME, LANDLORDS MUST WEIGH THESE BENEFITS AGAINST THE COST OF THE INVESTMENT. In the first instance, building services engineers may be able to identify some “low-hanging fruit” when assessing a property, some improvements that landlords can make that are relatively quick and cost effective to implement and yield immediate upgrades. There are also some other logical improvements that landlords can make over the life cycle of their assets, such as replacing building infrastructure with more efficient items when they reach their end of life. However, more intensive changes will require more extensive planning. This is becoming increasingly important for landlords as the direction of public policy shifts towards legislation that mandates more energy efficient buildings. In the near-term, the City of Sydney has adopted new planning rules requiring development applications for commercial buildings (both new and redevelopment) to be net-zero by 2026.

16