South African property company Novare Equity Partners has signed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to provide technical expertise for the decarbonisation of its buildings in Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria. This is the very first partnership under the Greening Real Estate Investment Portfolios (GRIP) programme launched by the IFC in 2022.
The World Bank Group’s private sector financing arm will provide Novare with “energy efficiency measures, long-term renewable energy solutions and other carbon removal and sequestration opportunities”. In concrete terms, the IFC teams will carry out an inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a carbon neutrality plan for Novare’s real estate properties in the three target countries.
Green construction set to take off in Africa
The aim is to move towards eco-responsible buildings that are both environmentally friendly (using local and recycled materials) and affordable for users. In this respect, “the costs of public services in green buildings are at least 30% lower than in comparable traditional buildings”, says the IFC.
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According to the IFC, there are several reasons why African property developers are rushing into green construction. The sector “is expected to grow by nearly 7% per year over the next few years”, and will be worth up to “$25,000 billion in emerging markets (China, South Africa, editor’s note) by 2030”. That’s far more than the $73 billion worth of real estate assets that the IFC estimates it has already certified through its EDGE label.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi