PETALING JAYA: Real estate technology group Juwai IQI will build a new carbon emission calculator into its super-app Atlas, which will empower homebuyers with data on homes' environmental impact and running costs.
Co-founder and group CEO Kashif Ansari said it wants to empower consumers with a greater awareness of their climate impact and the ability to reduce their water and energy bills.
“Developers are rapidly moving towards more sustainable construction, but there are no good tools to communicate the benefits of new green buildings to potential buyers,” he said in a statement today.
Beginning with integrating a climate emissions calculator into Atlas, the company is able to feed data to third-party portals and its own real estate listing portals including iqiglobal.com, juwai.com, and juwai.asia.
“The calculator will be a small, illustrated data window on each listing that reports on the property’s carbon footprint and likely lifestyle-related carbon footprints of the people who live there.
“We already provide buyers with a mortgage calculator, and it won’t be long before the climate emissions calculator is just as important to them. Homes that otherwise look identical can have vastly different climate impacts. Juwai IQI climate emissions calculator will make it easy to compare homes’ sustainability,” he said.
Kashif added despite rapid innovation in construction techniques and materials, buildings still account for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Meanwhile, he remarked that green homes can be good investments. Numerous studies from Asia, Europe, and North America indicate that green homes can resell for a premium of as much as 9% compared to otherwise similar properties, which he opined makes green homes a much better investment.
“In Kuala Lumpur, the reselling price premium on a median-priced green home would be about US$8,455 (RM40,100) and in Bangkok, the reselling price premium on an average-priced green apartment would be about US$8,455, while in Ho Chi Minh City, the reselling price premium on a median-priced green apartment would be about US$13,842,” said Kashif.
