The debate continues about whether apartment residents will pay more for green living, but c learly demand is growing within certain demographics and interest is quickly spreading to others. And it’s on all of our minds. Recently NMHC’s Kim Duty shared an interesting article “Green Renting: Tenants Desire Eco-Friendly Digs” with members of our newly launched MHN Forum at LinkedIn.

In the meantime, the number of properties offering a nod to green living keeps growing. So much so that the National Apartment Association hosted a new niche conference devoted to this topic last w eek.

One attendee, a small property owner who wished to remain unidentified, lamented that green is still so subject to interpretation. “I was hoping there might be a magic template but we’re still not there yet,” he told me. “The industry is still evolving. [Green] hasn’t translated in increases on the revenue side yet; but, if we manage expenses better, we can derive a benefit.”

He also thinks that once the multifamily projects now in the construction pipeline are finished, we’ll see a two-year drought. This will be a time when owners of existing buildings will ramp up their gr een initiatives. “This will one day result in an industry baseline for existing multifamily buildings,” he said.

As the methods for measuring green continue to unfold, it will become obvious that putting your most environmentally conscious foot forward may already be a part of doing business these days. Especially when the apartment community across the street is already doing so—or plans to in the near future. Do a Google for “green apartments” and see what comes up. Websites like Low Impact Living are catering to green apartment consumers.

The good news is that there are easy and inexpensive ways for apartment owners and their teams to reduce their carbon footprints and offer a healthier living experience.

At the green conference in Phoenix, Heather Kreitz, Vice President, Energy Advisory Service, presented a slew of creative ideas (as well as their marketing value) at “Going Green and Increasing NOI.” For example:

• Close the deal by providing incoming residents with moving boxes; recycle these and re-use for the next move
• Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
• On a larger scale, choose renewable energy sources.

Click here for my VIDEO interview with Heather as well as a conversation with James Brew, Rocky Mountain Institute.

But keep in mind that all the green measures in the world will do little to attract new business if you don’t get the word out to prospects. Make sure they know that you’ve switched to low-VOC paint, that your plumbing fixtures use less water and that you’ve installed Energy Star appliances. Create a “Green Strategy” document and give it the visibility it deserves. From a marketing standpoint, Kreitz compares today’s apartment community’s green attributes to yesterday’s community pool or fitness center. It’s a great closing tool and your leasing agents will thank you.

(You can contact Diana Mosher at Diana.Mosher@nielsen.com)

The effects of widespread single-family home foreclosures on American neighborhoods have received much media attention. We’ve seen light-hearted footage of enterprising teenagers skateboarding in abandoned swimming pools—as well as disturbing images of block after block of empty houses falling into disrepair.
 

Lately the media has been focusing on new opportunities created as a result of these foreclosed homes. 

Americans who were previously unable to afford certain properties are now snatching them up at auction prices. This is good news for neighborhoods on the brink, but others will require more assistance to be revitalized. Multifamily and single-family specialists will need to work together for this to happen.

Last summer Enterprise Community Partners Inc. and its partners worked with Congress to secure $3.92 billion for a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) in an effort to avert further destabilization. NSP is a recently developed federal program based upon the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and designed to provide localities with funds to reduce the harmful effects foreclosed and vacant properties have on neighborhoods.

Localities that received NSP allocations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) were required to submit an action plan describing how they’d use NSP funds to confront the foreclosure crisis and stabilize communities.

In order to compile suggestions and best practices for communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, Enterprise analyzed 87 of the 306 plans submitted, to see what the recipients of these NSP funds planned to do with their allocations.

Besides quantitative analysis, researchers looked for promising and innovative approaches in a number of areas including acquisition and discount strategies, disposition strategies, geographic targeting, green building and rehabilitation strategies, income targeting and long-term affordability, and leveraging NSP funds.

The report “The Challenge of Foreclosed Properties: An Analysis of State and Local Plans to Use the Neighborhood Stabilization Program” can be downloaded from the Enterprise website.

Also, read Erika Schnitzer’s story about NSP on MHN today.

(Diana Mosher is the Editor-in-Chief of Multi-Housing News. She can be
reached at diana.mosher@nielsen.com)