Investment appraisal tools and sustainability evaluation in social housing

Conventional decision making in all aspects of the asset management sector has largely been based around the key concepts of risk reduction and maximization of returns. Yet the RICS (2009) has called for surveying professionals to significantly modify their current practice to ensure it aligns with the government policy which has sought to encourage sustainable development through sustainable construction and property management. For organizations operating in the social housing sector this has meant reinvesting, through regeneration and improvement programmes in their existing socially excluded neighbourhoods in order to deliver 'sustainable communities.' The work reported in this paper focuses on a quantitative study executed to assess the extent to which current practice in the social housing sector has been modified to consider sustainable aspects of property investment, and specifically to identify the tools and techniques used. Using a questionnaire survey data was gathered from 250 social housing providers in the United Kingdom achieving a response rate of 15%. The interim findings suggest while social housing property directors understand the importance of considering sustainability they have not yet achieved the paradigm shift in terms of its implementation called for in the literature.