Health and safety on construction sites in Ghana

The state of health and safety on construction sites in Ghana was investigated using first hand observation of fourteen (14) construction project sites in 2009 and 2010. At each site, the construction project, workers and the physical environment of the site were inspected and evaluated against health and safety indicators taken from the literature. The results reveal a poor state of health and safety on Ghanaian construction sites. The primary reasons are a lack of strong institutional framework for governing construction activities and poor enforcement of health and safety policies and procedures. Also, Ghanaian society does not place a high premium on health and safety of construction workers on site. Interviews with workers indicated that injuries and accidents are common on sites. However, compensation for injury is often at the discretion of the contractor although collective bargaining agreements between Labour unions and employers prescribe obligations for the contractor in the event of injury to a worker.

Contractor project estimates vs. consultant project estimates in Ghana

Ten projects constructed in Ghana between 2003 and 2010 are examined and analysed to ascertain the reliability of estimated costs provided for the projects. Cost estimates for five of the projects were calculated by consultants and cost estimates for the five remaining projects were calculated by contractors. Cost estimates prepared by contractors seemed to be closer to actual costs than estimates calculated by consultants. Projects estimated by consultants experienced an average cost overrun of 40% and time overrun of 62% whereas projects priced by contractors experienced an average cost overrun of 6% and time overrun of 41%. It seemed that contractors had a better understanding of the actual construction processes and a clearer expectation of the needs of the client hence an ability to calculate estimates that were closer to reality. Construction clients in Ghana should rely on contractors for more realistic cost estimates as estimates by consultants may be inaccurate. Where consultants are employed, an allowance of up 40% should be added to the estimated costs as a margin for inaccuracy.

Green noise or green value? Measuring the effects of environmental certification on office values

This study investigates the price effects of environmental certification on commercial real estate assets. It is argued that there are likely to be three main drivers of price differences between certified and noncertified buildings. These are additional occupier benefits, lower holding costs for investors and a lower risk premium. Drawing upon the CoStar database of U.S. commercial real estate assets, hedonic regression analysis is used to measure the effect of certification on both rent and price. The results suggest that, compared to buildings in the same submarkets, eco-certified buildings have both a rental and sale price premium.

New evidence on the green building rent and price premium

This paper investigates the effect of voluntary eco-certification on the rental and sale prices of US commercial office properties. Hedonic and logistic regressions are used to test whether there are rental and sale price premiums for LEED and Energy Star certified buildings. The results of the hedonic analysis suggest that there is a rental premium of approximately 6% for LEED and Energy Star certification. A sale price premium of approximately 35% was found for 127 price observations involving LEED rated buildings and 31% for 662 buildings involving Energy Star rated buildings. When compared to samples of similar buildings identified by a binomial logistic regression for LEED-certified buildings, the existence of a rent and sales price premium is confirmed albeit with differences regarding the magnitude of the premium. Overall, the results of this study confirm that LEED and Energy Star buildings exhibit higher rental rates and sales prices per square foot controlling for a large number of location- and property-specific factors.

Asymmetric adjustment in the City of London office market

Earlier estimates of the City of London office market are extended by considering a longer time series of data, covering two cycles, and by explicitly modeling of asymmetric space market responses to employment and supply shocks. A long run structural model linking real rental levels, office-based employment and the supply of office space is estimated and then rental adjustment processes are modeled using an error correction model framework. Rental adjustment is seen to be asymmetric, depending both on the direction of the supply and demand shocks and on the state of the space market at the time of the shock. Vacancy adjustment does not display asymmetries. There is also a supply adjustment equation. Two three-equation systems, one with symmetric rental adjustment and the other with asymmetric adjustment, are subjected to positive and negative shocks to employment. These illustrate differences in the two systems.