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CBRE's latest Climate Risk and Real Estate Resilience viewpoint highlights how the global property sector is strengthening its approach to physical climate risks through deeper assessments and resilience-focused investments. Released around COP 30 in Brazil, the report comes as Asia Pacific faces severe weather events such as cyclones, floods, heatwaves and bushfires, with annual economic losses reaching USD 780 billion. Stress testing and climate-risk tools are increasingly guiding decisions on asset exposure and design, influencing both new developments and retrofits. CBRE analysts note that investors now prioritise climate-resilient buildings, which typically retain value better and attract stronger tenant demand amid rising environmental pressures.
CBRE has recently issued its Climate Risk and Real Estate Resilience viewpoint, highlighting how the global property sector is sharpening its response to physical climate risks by adopting detailed assessment frameworks and resilience-driven investment strategies. The publication was released around the time COP 30 took place in Brazil, a period marked by increasingly volatile climate behaviour across multiple geographies. Advertisement
The wider Asia Pacific region has been experiencing a wave of extreme climate events in the past week, including tropical cyclones, floods, heatwaves, droughts and bushfires. Analysts referenced that the economic toll of such events now averages close to USD 780 billion annually. Projected models indicate that the financial burden could rise further, potentially reaching between USD 1.2 trillion and USD 1.5 trillion in moderate to worst-case scenarios. These patterns echo past assessments from regional climate agencies, which have repeatedly warned of accelerating risks to real estate portfolios, especially in coastal and high-exposure zones.
Corrado Forcellati, who leads Paia under CBRE for Singapore and Southeast Asia, conveyed that analysing climate datasets and running stress tests has become indispensable for protecting real estate from the growing severity of climate shocks. He noted that physical-risk assessment tools are helping translate climate hazard scenarios into practical insights that guide decision-making on asset exposure, threat likelihood and severity. According to him, such analysis is expected to influence how developers integrate resilience-oriented features at the design stage of new construction and in retrofit programmes for existing buildings - an approach increasingly observed over recent years as climate-resilient infrastructure gains industry attention.
Ada Choi, who heads Research for Asia Pacific at CBRE, stated that extreme climate events have intensified in recent years, amplifying operational, financial and valuation risks for properties across the region. She added that investors are now placing greater emphasis on assets equipped with climate-resilient attributes, as such buildings tend to secure stronger tenant interest, maintain value more effectively and outperform less resilient real estate during periods of environmental stress. Her remarks align with previous investor behaviour trends, where climate-aligned asset strategies have steadily become part of due-diligence and underwriting frameworks.
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