OUE Bayfront Starts Offering Green Leases Thanks To Allianz Real Estate
SINGAPORE – Allianz Real Estate stated that commercial property owners have capability to eco-friendly arrangements in the real estate sector, reported The Business Times on Wednesday morning (24 November, SGT).
According to Allianz Real Estate Asia Pacific’s CEO Rushabh Desai, one of the sustainability initiatives they are particularly proud of is the implementation of green leases to occupants.
“For example, we bought a stake in OUE Bayfront in Singapore this year. After we took ownership of it, we sat down with OUE and we said: ‘We need green leases’. And we’ve signed our first green lease in OUE Bayfront, which I’m really proud of.”
Under green leases, tenants share data regarding the energy usage of their occupied premises, work with their landlord to reduce energy consumption, and agree to the use of renewable energy, among other things.
“It’s incredible that in countries where there was no concept (of this) – in China, nobody signs green leases; in Japan, nobody signs green leases – we have actually signed green leases. I’m extremely proud of the fact that we are the first in the market to do something like this,” noted. Desai.
Besides Singapore, Allianz Real Estate has also implemented green leases across its properties in China and Japan. Overall, it has successfully signed over 700 green leases so far this year.
“We also offer incentives to tenants sometimes, or encourage them and educate them on why green leases are important,” he said, adding that they plan to have more tenants take up green leases.
It can be recalled that in January 2021, a 50 percent stake in OUE Bayfront was sold for about S$634 million to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) being managed by Allianz Real Estate on behalf of South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) and Allianz Group.
The mixed-use development consists of an 18-storey Grade A office building, a conserved structure, and an overhead pedestrian link bridge with retail units. It was also awarded the Green Mark Gold Award by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
