Retrofitting Buildings to be Future-Fit

Rising energy costs will hasten the move towards efficient buildings

We estimate that across the world’s most developed cities at least 90% of office buildings are over 10 years old. Most of these assets would not meet today’s energy efficiency standards for new builds and very few have firm plans in place to prepare for even more stringent regulations on the horizon as governments pivot efforts to decarbonize existing buildings.

80% of office buildings which exist today will still be in-use in 2050

To avoid ‘brown discounts’ and penalties, real estate owners need to make their buildings future-fit through a program of net zero carbon (NZC) interventions as part of broader asset repositioning strategies.

In our latest research, we introduce JLL’s asset decarbonization roadmap. We examine 3 levels of retrofits - from light, focusing on performance optimization, to deep whole-building refurbishments which result in greater energy efficiency gains, emissions reduction and cost-savings. We share some recent examples of retrofitting projects from across the globe that demonstrate the benefits for early adopters on price, liquidity, debt and tenant attraction.