Property Agents
Property Agents can be central to integrating sustainability into buildings for many reasons: they are the link between owners and occupiers; they interact with occupiers on a daily basis around how buildings are used; they are in charge of day-to-day building and facilities management; they play an important role in property refurbishment; they can bring experience from one client to another.
However, the role of property agents in integrating sustainability into buildings is yet to be clarified. Different clients have different expectations of the responsibilities of agents, and as of now there is little standardisation in the marketplace with owners and agents coming to an understanding on a case by case basis.
Also, various agents have very different sustainability experience and as a result their sustainability ‘offer’ to owners and occupiers can be different, leading to a lack of clarity in the market.
The Property Agents Working Group has brought together different agents and owners to develop a toolkit on the role of the Property Agent in improving sustainability performance of buildings. The toolkit will recommend which sustainability responsibilities should be ‘core’ responsibilities of the agent and which should be subject to negotiation between owner and agent.
The Working Group is chaired by David Mummery of Legal & General and draws on the experience of a number of managing agents including Broadgate Estates, GVA Grimley, King Sturge, Jones Lang LaSalle, NB Real Estate and Workman Group.
The Working Group will be publishing its Managing Agents Toolkit in Autumn 2010