Increased complexity of real estate ‘enormously interesting’

The real estate industry has to tear down metaphorical walls and fund managers must start talking to building engineers and the rest of the chain as we face the huge task of making the built environment more sustainable.

So said Marcus Wiedenmann, chief executive officer of Art Invest Real Estate in an interview with Real Asset Insight.

“These are exciting times to drive the real estate industry into sustainability and the good thing is that goal hasn’t changed with everything else that has happened, with interest rates etc.”

He said that these are “enormously interesting times” because of the increased complexity of the real estate business now. “It’s not just a few parameters. Now it’s where do you get energy from? How do you use it? How do you run it more efficiently? What’s the embodied carbon? The whole thing becomes so much more interesting.”

He said that the road ahead is a hard one. “I think the biggest task is to start with the buildings that are already there and just operate them more efficiently.”