At the same time, analysts see the importance of extending coverage beyond the office and industrial sectors, increasing coverage of in-use and renovation projects, and certifying multiple assets rather than single buildings.
Beyond that, accreditation systems also need to extend their activities to more complex operational demands, including data collection and property management throughout the life-style of an asset.
“Certification should move beyond design intent and point-in-time labels. It should increasingly reflect actual energy use, carbon, indoor environmental quality, resilience, controllability, data quality and operational management over the building lifecycle. The market increasingly needs proof of performance, not only proof of specification,” argues Hubert Abt, CEO of workcloud24.
As of the first quarter of this year, around 2.65 million sqm of Budapest’s 4.48 million sqm of office stock held third-party sustainability accreditation, according to Colliers.
BREEAM remains the most used system in Hungary and the CEE region. The U.K.-based organization defines its role with its recently released New Construction V7 system as “supporting long-term asset value by improving asset intelligence, strengthening resilience and helping them respond to investor and occupier expectations.”
For tenants, it is seen as supporting more efficient, resilient and healthier buildings, with continued emphasis on issues such as air quality, natural light, thermal comfort and acoustic performance. For the wider society, the benefit is that new developments are encouraged to reduce environmental impact, use resources more efficiently, support biodiversity, and contribute to healthier, more resilient places.
“From a BREEAM perspective, the broader trend is that investors and occupiers are placing greater emphasis on quality, resilience, and credible sustainability performance. BREEAM supports that by giving the market a recognized framework for assessing and communicating how assets perform against those expectations,” says James Fisher, head of strategy partners at BRE Group, the company behind BREEAM.
Developers and owners face distinct challenges with new construction versus in-use green building certifications, according to Zsombor Barta, founding partner at Greenbors Consulting.
“For new construction, the main hurdles include upfront design and planning to meet strict sustainability standards, integrating new technologies, managing higher initial costs, and coordinating multiple stakeholders early on,” he says.
“In contrast, in-use certifications focus on existing buildings, where challenges revolve around accurately measuring and improving ongoing performance, retrofitting systems, engaging occupants, and balancing operational costs with sustainability goals,” Barta notes. “Overall, new construction requires proactive planning and investment, while in-use certification demands continuous management and adaptation,” he comments.
Sustainability is seen as becoming the norm across all property sectors. Hospitality, retail, and residential developments have historically lagged behind the office and industrial sectors. Still, the gap is closing rapidly, according to Norbert Szircsák, head of sustainability services at Colliers Hungary.
“In the residential sector, increasingly stringent energy regulations are already driving highly energy-efficient developments, further supported by the growing adoption of smart-home technologies,” he says. “However, greater emphasis should be placed on biodiversity, green space ratios, and social considerations such as affordable housing,” Szircsák notes.
“In hospitality, most major international operators now have well-established sustainability standards. These operational requirements should be supported by the buildings themselves, where developers have the primary responsibility. In retail, large international brands are increasingly incorporating ESG requirements into their leasing and procurement processes. While not yet as widespread as in some other sectors, there are already strong examples demonstrating how tenant demand can drive more sustainable development,” he adds.
The industrial sector is seen as having a critical role to play in sustainability, and its impact extends far beyond the real estate itself. From the 6.36 million sqm of industrial and logistics stock, 2.36 million sqm is third-party sustainability accredited- according to Colliers.
“From a building perspective, rooftop photovoltaic systems are often an obvious opportunity due to the large roof areas available. Landscaping should focus on supporting biodiversity rather than simply maintaining low-value grassed areas, while rainwater should be collected, re-used where possible and excess water infiltrated into the ground,” says Szircsák.
“The greatest sustainability impact, however, lies within industrial processes. Process energy consumption and water use often represent the most significant environmental footprint of industrial facilities. Achieving meaningful progress, therefore, requires not only sustainable buildings but also cleaner energy sources, greater efficiency, and more sustainable water management within manufacturing operations,” he adds.
The key question is whether it is better to assess ESG performance at the building level or at the corporate level, argues Regina Kurucz, managing director of Rewell Consulting and a certified WELL expert and a LEED Green Associate.
“In Hungary, even in the case of real estate funds, the practice that has taken hold is building-by-building assessment, even though there is a real alternative: measuring the performance of companies or entire real estate funds collectively. Arguably that would be more meaningful than assessing assets one by one,” she says.
“Certification systems already offer alternatives along this spectrum. WELL Certification operates at the building level; WELL Health-Safety Rating can apply at the building or portfolio level; and WELL at Scale operates at the enterprise level,” though the latter is still relatively unknown in the Hungarian market,” Kurucz points out.
“A new option, One WELL, is coming in 2026 or 2027 and is designed to bridge exactly this dilemma: it will let companies see both the results for individual locations and the aggregated performance across their entire portfolio at the same time,” she adds.
“Fortunately, leading certification systems are continuously evolving, with major updates typically introduced every five years,” notes Szircsák. “The latest versions of BREEAM and LEED, the two most widely adopted certification frameworks, place greater emphasis on the sustainability challenges that are becoming increasingly important for the sector,” he says.
“Examples include embodied carbon, the source of energy rather than solely operational energy reduction, biodiversity enhancement, climate resilience, and more comprehensive social impact considerations. Going forward, certification systems should continue to align with emerging ESG priorities while maintaining a strong focus on measurable outcomes and performance,” Szircsák concludes.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 18, 2026.
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