Is there an increase in demand for green buildings in today's real estate market?

That the construction and real estate sector is one of the energy culprits in modern society is nothing new; the industry needs to take its responsibility for sustainability and start building for future generations. This sparked an interest in us and therefore we chose to investigate whether there is an increased demand for sustainably built homes in today’s real estate market. To get an idea of the research situation, we chose to look at studies from around the world. These studies showed a relatively high willingness to pay for sustainably built housing. During our groundwork, we found a lack of research from the Nordic countries, and decided to begin this study with focus on the Swedish real estate market. In order to find out the study's question: Is there an increased demand for sustainably built homes in today's real estate market?, we chose to conduct semi-structured interviews. We interviewed five relevant actors from the swedish real estate industry who were able to share their experience and knowledge of sustainability, the industry and demand. Four of these were representatives of real estate developers and one works as a real estate agent. In the result part of the essay we come to the conclusion, with the help of the respondents, that there is anincreased demand for Green Buildings in comparison with non-sustainable built housing. During the interviews, it also emerged that there is higher demand in the commercial market than for those who buy a home for their own use. What this is due to is not entirely clear, but it is rooted in different types of financial incentives. Commercial players have a more long-term investment plan when buying properties than customers who buy for private use. This means that the lower monthly operating costs that an ecologically built home provides have a longer time to repay the initially higher investment cost. This in connection with ever higher conditions from BBR (Boverkets Building Law) places different demands on commercial buyers than private home buyers, which in turn affects demand. Further research with additional developers and real estate agents is needed to create an even clearer picture of exactly how high the demand is. Carrying out quantitative studies in the future with data on sales prices can provide a more accurate picture of the exact willingness to pay for sustainability in the real estate sector