This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIA has taken fifth place in the most transparent markets for sustainability, according to JLL and LaSalle’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI).
The index ranks global transparency across six performance topics including investment performance, market fundamentals, listed vehicles, regulatory & legal, transaction processes and sustainability.
“Transparency is one of the most important considerations for global investors seeking geographical diversification in their real estate portfolios,” said Andrew Ballantyne, head of research at JLL, Australia.
Australia pulled into fourth place out of the 94 countries ranked for real estate transparency and broke the top 10 across all topics, one of only 12 markets to be rated as “highly transparent”.
“We have observed a strong relationship between transparency and cross-border investment flows and this is part of the explanation for why Australia receives a disproportionately high share of cross-border investment,” added Ballantyne.
Australia was also the top ranking country in the Asia Pacific region, taking the number one spot in five out of 5 topics.
While was Japan the only other country to be identified as “highly transparent” in the region, Singapore just fell short.
“To keep ahead of the pack, we need to keep our focus on sustainability ratings,” said Dan Kernaghan, CEO of JLL Australia & New Zealand.
“Australia is ahead in this journey but we should not become complacent and there continues to be significant work to do in this area. Australia’s national rating system for environmental performance, NABERS began two decades ago.”
Kernaghan pointed to the comparatively low level of buildings across the country achieving a 5.5 or 6 star NABERS rating, at just 249 assets out of 4,150 office buildings nationally, as at Q2 2022.
“Sustainability transparency will be an increasingly important metric in the current era of climate accountability. Investors need to be able to report the sustainability performance of their portfolios to attract capital and this is significantly easier to do when sustainability reporting standards are clear, transparent and independent,” concluded Kernaghan.
