Summary

This thesis describes the research concerning the sustainability issues within the investment market from a management perspective. Experts are interviewed to examine the sustainability performance of their real estate portfolio and what they do to further develop a sustainable real estate portfolio.
The main research question is: “Which aspects motivate investors to invest in the sustainability performance of office buildings in the Netherlands, and to what extent?”. In order to answer this research question, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted.
For this research, a qualitative framework is used to gain insight into the perception of sustainability and the implementation of sustainability measures within office buildings. The findings show that, within the investment market, sustainability is considered to be very important and investors are willing to improve the sustainability performance of office buildings. However, there is a strong focus on costs and investors have to deal with several issues. The analysis resulted in a measures catalogue for investors to apply to improve the corporate sustainability strategy and the sustainability performance of their real estate portfolio.
Furthermore, recommendations are formulated. Possible further research could focus more specifically on private equity investors, the financial consequences of the measures catalogue, and rules and regulations to motivate investors to improve the sustainability performance of their office buildings.