Physical climate risk is forcing a shift from mitigation-only thinking to adaptation as a capital and governance question. This category tracks how adaptation and resilience are reshaping real asset strategy — insurance retreat, regulatory direction, valuation impact, and the board-level decisions that follow — as the conversation moves faster than most institutions have built capacity to track.
Data from the European Central Bank gives the clearest picture yet of how climate risk is being priced into European commercial real estate. The findings split cleanly into two stories: one about price, one about liquidity. Investors, insurers, and boards need both. The headline number The ECB working paper Pricing or panicking? Commercial real estate […]
Key points A commercial building approved today will still be standing in 2075. The rules it is built to, how it is valued, the initial loan conditions and insurance terms all get fixed at the point it is built. A changing context, whether it be new building requirements, climate related risks, buyer sentiment, means that
Why Adaptation and Resilience Need a Shared Language in Real Estate Read More »
The UK’s Climate Change Committee convened a citizens’ panel this year. One question: should households facing less climate risk help pay for those facing more. The focus was on adaptation. The panel didn’t resolve it. Nobody has. That’s not a gap in the process. It’s the actual shape of the problem. Published this month in
The climate insurance question that needs a public answer Read More »
Key points The UK’s insurance protection gap stands at 29%. Flood Re, the public-private reinsurance scheme that has kept flood insurance affordable for the highest-risk households since 2016, ends in 2039. Without it, that gap will grow. The Climate Change Committee is explicit on this in its Fourth Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk. What
Flood Risk, insurance, and what remains unanswered: Who pays? Read More »
Key points The buildings being financed today will either prove their value in 2040, or they won’t The question that matters most about any building is not whether it performs well today. It is whether it will still be performing, financeable, and insurable in fifteen years. That is a harder question than it sounds and
Why the data gap is becoming a real asset liability Read More »
New research, published today in PERE. Bank card transaction data from Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide has something to say about retail valuation models. On days above 35°C, consumer spending falls 6.8% overall. In the peak trading window, the drop hits 13%. Spending partially rebounds the following days, by about 5%. But, and this is important
Most conversations about climate resilience in cities start in the wrong place. They begin with planning — land use, zoning, infrastructure design, flood modelling. These things matter. But treating resilience as primarily a planning problem misses where the real pressure is building. The pressure is financial. When insurers reprice flood risk in a postcode, that’s
Urban climate resilience has a framing problem — and it’s costing cities Read More »
Key points I had the opportunity to present at a Parliamentary roundtable chaired by George Freeman MP at Portcullis House in Westminster. The roundtable is being used to inform Freeman’s Inland Flooding Bill, a piece of proposed legislation designed to improve accountability for flood risk, help residents better prepare, and tighten planning rules. Alongside me
Uninsurable Britain? What Australia, New Zealand, and California can teach us Read More »
Key points Real estate portfolios face a fundamental valuation problem: asset prices do not yet fully reflect climate risk. For boards overseeing REITs, pension funds, and institutional portfolios, this mispricing represents fiduciary risk. Valuations anchored to historical data understate future impacts. The following questions provide a framework for assessing whether climate risk is properly reflected
The Valuation Gap: Board Questions for Climate Risk Assessment in Real Estate Read More »
Key points Climate risk is no longer a future concern for real estate portfolios, it’s a present valuation problem, an insurance crisis, and a fiduciary challenge. Boards overseeing REITs, pension fund real estate holdings, and institutional portfolios face a stark reality: the gap between climate risk and asset pricing is widening. A landmark survey of
The Adaptation Imperative: Board Questions for Climate-Resilient Real Estate Read More »
