The Aging of a Building Versus Its Life Cycle with Regards to Real Estate Appraisal

Abstract Construction objects are subjected to aging processes and other changes and influences during their life cycle. The paper focuses on one of the stages of the life cycle of a developed property - the final part of the service life phase, which is referred to by the author as “the autumn years”. The paper analyses the problem of classifying a building object to an appropriate life cycle when conducting a real estate valuation. The author searched for the answers to the question of when the liquidation phase begins, because the decommissioning of a building affects the landscape and spatial heterogeneity. The reasons for demolishing buildings were analyzed, and are as follows: the poor technical condition of building objects; functional wear; difficulties in carrying out renovation or reconstruction works; and financial unprofitability, which takes into account the life phases of buildings. This paper aims to prove the following theses: - knowledge of the life cycle is the basis for the correct identification of a property’s condition, - the age of the elements of a building is not a fundamental quantity that determines the course of its physical depreciation, - the liquidation of a building has a big impact on ecological awareness.