Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The building and real estate industry have a significant influence on the environment, economy and the society. A number of benefits are associated with the development of sustainable or green buildings. Sustainable building or real estate construction enables an ethical, viable and practical response to resource consumption and environmental impact. It creates an economic sense on a life cycle costing basis. The current research paper aims to examine the impact of sustainable real estate development (SRED) on investment in green buildings, in the real estate sector. It is pertinent to examine that how embracing sustainability in real estate building impacts or changes value proposition for an investment i.e. how participants in the market filter and scrutinize relevant sets of information and integrate it into an existing framework of investment. For this purpose, the study adopted a quantitative approach, and applied a questionnaire survey strategy. Primary data was collected by distributing survey questionnaire among the real estate investors, in the region of Austria, Vienna, Lower Austria. The information, collected from survey was analysed by the help of statistical techniques, specifically regression analysis, factor analysis, descriptive statistics, as well as reliability test. It evaluated four benefits associated with SRED, which include higher building value (HBV), productivity gains (PG), cost savings (CS), and environmental gains (EG). Using data of 103 Austrian investors, the study finds a significant positive impact of HBV, PG, and EG on dependent variable of Investment in green buildings (IN) at 10% significance level. However, it is unable to find significant association between CS and IN. The study suggests that there is a need to enhance awareness about, and focus on the benefits of sustainable real estate development (SRED) and green buildings.