The main objective of the study was to investigate the effect of green features on residential property price. The study used two cases to empirically investigate this issue. The empirical results suggest that a residential building having HK-BEAM certification or HK-GBC award increases the property price by 3.46 percent and 6.61 percent in case 1 and case 2, respectively. The results imply that buyers are willing to pay a premium for residential buildings certified by quality standard green building certifications. For example, one is willing to pay HK$138,400 (case 1) and HK$265,600 (case 2) more on a property for green features, which otherwise costs HK$4 million.
Several conclusions can be drawn from the findings. First, quality green labelling/certification can be viewed as a selling point for developers. The implementation of standard quality sustainability measures will help increase the marketability of their portfolios. Here, the quality sustainable measures imply an award-winning certification such as HK-BEAM or HK-GBC. That acts like a promise or guarantee from the developer that the value of the property and hence better and healthy living environment would be maintained to the highest standard, since that residential building is certified by a well-known labelling system. It eventually helps increase the marketability and the competitiveness (over the others) through a better quality and a healthy living environment for the buyers and enhances the vendor's profit margins since buyers are willing to pay for them. Consequently, more and more real estate stakeholders would begin to think to integrate sustainable development thinking and ideas into the heart of their businesses.