29^th September a group of ULI Netherlands members met at the inspiring Floating Office, home to the Global Center for Adaptation and Powerhouse Company Architects to explore how climate adaptation is influencing real estate. Surrounded by Rotterdam’s tall buildings and nestled in a tranquil harbour, the Floating Office provided a perfect platform and stark reality that our built environment may already be sending signals that real estate is adapting to climatic changes.

We are seeing an increasing level of extreme weather conditions with varying influences on real estate according to Billy Grayson, executive director for the Center for Sustainability and Economic Development at the Urban Land Institute. The insurance market is already sending a signal to the wider real estate market that climate adaptation is a rising challenge in many parts of the world, while real estate organisations are increasingly assessing their climate risk profile and leveraging data to further inform how to adapt their portfolios into the future.

Climate risk is however not that clearly priced in the market, where major events such as hurricane Sandy are not influencing the market as government bailout and benefits may mask the future risk. According to Billy cities are getting better but still need to better assess the economic risks and we could see this influence bond rates in the future. The importance of city leadership as found in Rotterdam will increasingly play an important role in ensuring communities, the economy and wider real estate market can adapt.

The human impact of climate adaptation is increasingly coming to the fore as highlighted by Zac Taylor, postdoctoral researcher, TU Delft. Challenges are emerging where not all communities have the ability or expertise to adapt leading to ‘climate gentrification’. In some parts of Florida insurance costs are equal to 2 to 3 mortgage payments, highlighting the affordability risks for some sectors of the city and a need for greater collaboration to adopt systemic climate adaptation that supports all community areas.

A lively debate lead by Piet Dircke, global director of climate adaptation at Arcadis, Arnoud Molenaar, chief resilience Officer and cities lead cities at the GCA, Bernardo Korenberg, head of sustainability & innovation for Bouwinvest and Eva Gaaff, consultant urban development & real estate, Arcadis explored the reality of implanting climate resilience into practice. Market challenges that were highlighted include, varying climate risk assessment standards, market leadership and a drive to continually develop without considering the embodied or carbon in use implications. The discussion also highlighted that global organisations such as Bouwinvest may be leading climate adaptation across their portfolios which is in turn influencing wider city policies.

The event concluded an inspirational site tour of the Floating Office with the real estate development lead for RED Company and the building architect from Powerhouse Company.

We would like to thank Nanne De Ru, and his team at Powerhouse Company and Red Company for hosting this event.

Click on the below image to view photos from this event.