ShoreBank Leads with Green Building Loan Platform

 

In our Green Real Estate workshops, you will see an outline similar to the one here with our explanation:

Real “green” loans are backed by appropriate underwriting and evaluation, and/or earmarked capital from the lender.

(See also “What Makes a Real Estate Loan Green”).

There are certainly institutions that may fund green buildings, but we observe that their lack of appropriate underwriting and evaluation procedures means that they are not really capturing the complete range of opportunities that green buildings present, nor assessing the true collateral risks — both issues of intense interest to their shareholders. Their green developer and investor clients may also suffer because if issues occur during the life of the loan, they lack the history and infrastructure to constructively contribute to the most appropriate solutions.

But here’s new evidence that perhaps the financial community is about to catch up on these issues –> from one of the ‘usual suspects’ in the green real estate finance space.

Industry pacesetter ShoreBank Pacific announced that they have formally launched a green building loan program, while many other financial institutions are retreating from real estate.  Go ShoreBank Pacific!

But wait there’s more…

ShoreBank’s announcement is particularly interesting because CEO Dave Williams is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Green Building Finance & Investment Forum, this 2-4 March. Attendees will be able to get the details from him live (and perhaps even personally hand him a loan application…ha!)

In any event, good news for green finance and we hope to report similar news from other banks.