Clifford Chance
Real Estate Newsletter - Autumn 2012
9 October 2012
Welcome to the autumn edition of our Real Estate Newsletter – the Expo edition – covering hot legal topics in real estate and real estate financing.
Gerd A. Hille, CEO of LBBW Immobilien Management GmbH, has written an article entitled "Green Buildings – sustainability as a key to success in the real estate sector". He explains how "green buildings" will soon be the standard within the real estate sector and how investors and developers who fail to take account of this will find that their "non-sustainable" properties will be harder to let or sell.
In their article, Lars Thiessen and Gerold Jaeger tackle the potential legal impact of an EU member state withdrawing from the Euro and the possible effects of a currency changeover on the real estate sector. While we all hope it won't come to that, it is important to be prepared and to check that your contractual documents are up to the job in the event of the worst-case scenario.
Jutta Aichele (PVW GmbH) and Christian Keilich's article "A New Approach to Property Valuation – Auditor Valuations" also deals with a topic of current importance. They explain the changes which are likely to arise from the plan by the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW) to give auditors more of an opportunity to perform property valuations themselves. Some sceptics have said that the IDW is simply trying to drum up business for its members.
The issue of providing a guarantee payable on first demand in standard-form lease agreements provides the basis for Ulrich Flege's article. This had previously been an uncontroversial means of providing collateral, but certain figures in legal literature have begun to question its validity.
