[photopress:FanWeiForte.jpg,full,alignright]A recent conference in Shanghai sponsored by Forte Group, one of the nation’s largest developers, with the assistance of Shanghai Real Estate Trade Association and other agencies, highlighted new materials and techniques that can lower construction and energy consumption costs in a housing development.
Fan Wei, president of Shanghai-based Forte and show here, said, ‘Though much has been said about energy saving in construction and maintenance of buildings, in reality, examples of this remain limited and isolated. This is due to mainly a lack of co-ordination between developers and research institutes. It is becoming common to see concept cars in annual auto trade shows. The cars may not be put into mass production until five years later, but carmakers are still keen on doing that. Why can’t we also start early in the real estate industry?’
In the last two years Forte has built two experimental detached villas, featuring 15 energy saving and environment-friendly technologies, on a 1,000-square meter plot in Songjiang District where one of its villa projects is located. The firm cooperated with Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science in the building of the two villas. With a total investment of 4.24 million yuan (US$530,000), the cost for each square meter is 5,300 yuan, about 1,000 yuan higher than construction that does not use energy saving techniques.
But the one-time increase in costs brings long term affordability, a key component of affordable housing and homeownership that a lot of buyers have not been aware of. The energy-smart villa saves 27 kilowatt-hours of power per square meter compared to the average villa, which means a reduction of 16.66 yuan per square meter on electric bills for the occupants.
Source: Shanghai Daily.