Roland Füss

Roland Füss is Professor of Real Estate Finance and Member of the Board of the Swiss Institute for Banking and Finance and of the School of Finance at the University of St.Gallen. Before joining the University, Professor Füss was an EBS Business School faculty member. He has published extensively in his area of expertise and sits on the editorial boards of several journals.

Professor Füss investigates the impact of carbon emissions on real estate rents and values. He employs a novel measure of carbon emissions related to buildings' sustainability and energy efficiency to tackle this critical topic. After accounting for a building's state and location, empirical results show that apartments in low-carbon buildings have higher net rents than those emitting more carbon emissions. From a tenant's perspective, this higher willingness to pay stems from additional cost savings related, for example, to heating when living in a sustainable property. Further estimates show that this higher willingness to pay for low-carbon housing is not decisively driven by a higher preference for living in an environmentally friendly apartment. From an investor's perspective, data shows that the market value of carbon-neutral properties is approximately 4 percent higher than that of seemingly identical carbon-emitting properties, a difference related to the higher investment costs. Finally, from a policy perspective these findings suggest that market intervention mechanisms such as CO2 taxes and subsidies support the transition toward a greener real estate market. Professor Füss actively participates in SFI Knowledge Exchange activities on ESG risks in the real estate market.

• Portfolio Management and Asset Classes
  • Asset Pricing
  • Portfolio Management
  • Real Estate