Hongkong Land and Marsh report highlights benefits of climate resilient design

Hongkong Land and Marsh have released a joint report, ‘Building Value That Lasts: Quantifying the Return on Climate Resilience in Real Estate’, which proposes a method for the industry to assign financial value to climate resilience.

Using the Westbund Central development in Shanghai as a case study, the report demonstrates that specific resilience measures can significantly mitigate risks. The findings indicate that the development’s measures reduce expected storm-surge losses by 84% and rainfall-flood losses by 88% under current conditions. Furthermore, these measures are projected to keep storm-surge and rainfall-flood losses in 2050 lower than the losses an unprotected building would face today.

The report aims to address the valuation gap in real estate, noting that while climate risk influences assessment, financing, and insurance, fewer than one in ten climate-related disclosures provide specific numerical data on adaptation. The initiative seeks to frame resilience as an investment with measurable returns rather than a mere cost.