Green and Sustainable Commercial Property Demand in Malaysia and Nigeria

Green building is redefining real estate practices and commercial properties are attracting greater attention of the paradigm shift. Nevertheless, in many countries including Malaysia and Nigeria, green building investment is still beset with uncertainties about the anticipated returns and benefits. The aim of this study is to identify the predictive factors and variables that motivate decisions to demand and invest in green commercial properties, and to apply discriminant analysis technique to assess if there are significant differences in perception between the real estate development team in Malaysia and Nigeria based on the identified variables. The result showed a significant discriminant function separating the two countries based on their perception of the variables. The green building motivation attributes favoured Malaysia. The Wilks’ Lambda’s F test and the standardized discriminant function coefficients, indicated that there are significant differences in perception between the real estate development team  in Malaysia and Nigeria as measured by personal and altruistic environmental motivations, corporate conscience responsibility motivations and economic and financial motivations. However, economic and financial motivation variables were found to have showed the most predictive power in accounting for the differences in perception. Keywords: green building, real estate investment, sustainability, motivations, perceptions.