Miljöcertifierade kommersiella byggnader : Undersökning av ekonomisk ansvarsfördelning mellan hyresgäst och fastighetsägare

Sammanfattning: The Swedish commercial real estate market is in the current situation globally affected and is actively interacting with the rental and capital markets through international tenants and investors who are setting new demands on the property owners. The European Union has set new requirements as well in purpose of reducing humanity’s negative effect on the climate and therefore the international real estate market has introduced Green Building-certificates in order to decrease the real estate industry’s environmental impact. Certificated buildings with low energy consumption are a more common sight in Sweden these days. The development, however, could go even faster if there was not certain difficulties between property owners and tenants. Previous research has revealed that tenants do not always have knowledge about, or may have access to the economic benefits that a green building can provide. This results in the tenants lesser approval of higher rents which often is the outcome of the property owners environmental investments in the building. The following effect means that energy improvements in the real estate sector is slowed and the environment suffers. To get a deeper understanding of this phenomenon we have with this study chosen to examine how Swedish property owners and tenants reason about advantages and disadvantages with certified commercial buildings as well as around economic responsibility for investments in these. In order to create favorable conditions to provide clarity in our problem we choose a qualitative method with open individual interviews so that we in depth could examine how our respondents were thinking about the subject. The study is based on theory of how the Swedish commercial rental model looks like today followed by the difficulties it might cause, the principal/agent-problem. Furthermore, theory of how green buildings affect property owners and tenants on different levels is presented. By analyzing the theory with the empirical data obtained through interviews, we have come to the following conclusion: Transparency of incentives reduces the principal/agent-problem. By having a clear dialogue between property owners and tenants regarding the incentives to own and rent a green building the suspicion that is closely associated with the principal/agent-problem is reduced which results in more favorable development with environmental investments in the building. Individually custom made green leases is a first step toward sharing financial responsibilities. When the incentives are clear, a distribution of environmental investment costs can be made between the two parties so that each one gets involved which is the purpose of Green Leases. Now that the tenant have a deeper understanding and knowledge about the benefits of green buildings, certification becomes easier. Funding may influence investment decisions. New possibilities have become available to property owners who want to certificate their property portfolio. Green bonds, which first was issued in Sweden in 2013 by Vasakronan, has increased intensely lately and opens up new ways for corporations in the real estate business to finance environmental investings.