Editor’s note: I can’t tell you how interesting it was to interview Ali Ingram from JLL, who is head of sustainability, capital markets. Her title kind of says it all. You’ve heard it a hundred times before, but where the money flows, the action flows, and Ingram’s views show where the gods of speed and investment are pointing – sustainability and resilience.
We spoke for well over an hour – it happens like that sometimes – with the topics ranging from big investment fears around sustainability changing from the prospect of a “brown discount” for poor performing property to outright illiquidity. For instance, the data centre with a risk of flooding that could not find a tenant. It couldn’t find a buyer either.
There’s so much from our interview we just couldn’t jam into the story – besides, we want you to come to our next forum Show Me the Money to hear more.
But here’s a hint of the big opportunities on the way for green businesses that can meet demands from the world’s big investors increasingly aware that climate risk is material: resilience work that can earn discounts on insurance premiums for property owners; energy infrastructure that can be integrated into industrial property as the ever growing appetite for energy from logistics centres continues to grow, and secure water supplies.
But there’s more … much more.
Get your tickets here. There are big discounts for TFE members so sign up here. And get in touch if you want to advertise or promote your work around this theme in our channels – we have many options available (and a really big appetite to keep expanding our work, so we need you!)
Melbourne – what are you doing to your brand?
Michael Spencer has taken a massive swipe at planning policy in Victoria with his Spinifex contribution on the Victorian Legislative Council and its scathing report on proposed changes to the Victorian Planning Provisions.
The report found, unsurprisingly, in issues around deregulation of planning that there was “little convincing evidence” to show that the planning changes would guarantee additional housing let alone more affordable housing.
So many approvals, so little development action – you’d think someone sooner or later would connect the dots. But no, the ideology ignited by former Reserve Bank of Australia operative Peter Tulip continues to dig its tentacles into the industry, the YIMBYs in particular who if their call for deregulation of planning rules could be shown to pave the way for lower cost housing, would have the whole country singing their praises.
It takes only a cursory look at the evidence to show that the market right now will build only top-shelf apartments because the underlying fundamental problems are the cost of finance, the cost of materials and the cost of labour. And only the wealthy can get a jump on that.
Planning can always be improved – but it’s not much different to what it was like during boom years. So duh!
Thank goodness the feds are about to embark on a huge housing program, we urge it to aim for 30 per cent of the market, which would be transformative in removing the worst pressures from the private sector and yield a whole heap of rewards.
We fully endorse the Green Building Council, that this week outlined the massive benefits of such a program – low carbon building materials, a steady pipeline of demand for modular construction or Modern Methods of Construction, more training for tradies and hopefully a new love of small modest housing.
The magazine
Elsewhere, the next issue of the magazine is powering away, and should be out in early June. Willow has written some fabulous articles and features around our big themes of Q2 – social value in the built environment and modern methods of construction.
Her interview about MMC with David Chandler, former Building Commissioner for New South Wales, and now chief stirrer of the building and construction industry, yielded an unexpected treasure trove of insights on building products and whether they are fit for purpose. We ran that piece early this week.
– Tina Perinotto