Common sense prevails with building ypgrade finance

Common sense prevails with building upgrade financeThe State’s largest private sector industry has today welcomed the passage of important legislation enabling building upgrade finance for building owners and landlords. The Property Council has long fought for sensible changes to the Local Government Act (1999) for a new financing mechanism for upgrading commercial buildings in South Australia.”Despite a lot of misinformation stemming from the scheme’s detractors, legislation has passed through State Parliament – legislation that will allow for a new financing mechanism to upgrade commercial buildings,” said SA Executive Director Daniel Gannon.”That means commercial building owners will soon be able to access loans to retrofit their buildings – buildings that house businesses for employers and jobs for employees. “After all, any measures that stimulate upgrades to buildings stimulate jobs growth.”Building Upgrade Finance will be of considerable assistance to commercial building owners and developers looking to access loans to retrofit their buildings.”Importantly, this great advocacy outcome means the proposed scheme will remove barriers to upgrading commercial buildings and lead to a more sustainable built environment.”Building upgrades can reduce operating costs, increase yields, help attract and retain tenants and improve asset values – it’s a no-brainer for building owners, but also for tenants.”This will provide a powerful tool for tenants to take up with their landlords to improve indoor amenity, staff productivity, and in many cases result in a net reduction in operating costs.”The Building Upgrade Finance mechanism makes sense on an economic front, not only for building owners and occupiers as a means of managing their utility costs, but for the businesses that can provide the clean technologies and solutions that lift building performance.”Mr Gannon said that assisting building owners to retrofit their buildings to enhance environmental efficiencies is an approach that will deliver more green buildings for South Australia.”We’re talking about reducing energy and water consumption, preventing or reducing pollution and ensuring discharge or waste isn’t harmful to the environment,” he said. “The Adelaide CBD has a large number of existing buildings in need of significant retrofitting. In fact, the vacancy rate for D-grade office space alone is approaching 20 per cent in the Adelaide CBD.