Climate risk is turning insurance and resilience into deal factors

This summer offered another stark reminder that climate risk is no longer a distant consideration for the global property market. Wildfires have swept through some of Europe’s best-known tourism and second-home destinations, with communities evacuated across France, Spain, Greece and Croatia. By mid-August, more than 576,000 hectares had been affected across Europe, while wildfires in the U.S. had burned more than 6.4 million acres during an exceptionally severe season. For the global real estate market, the implications extend beyond homes directly threatened by fire. Climate change is beginning to influence not simply where people want to live, but how buyers determine what a property is worth. Luxury real estate impacted For generations, the fundamentals of luxury real estate have been remarkably consistent: scarcity, location, architecture, privacy and views. Those fundamentals haven’t disappeared, but another consideration is moving rapidly up the list: climate resilience. Buyers are now asking questions that once sat lower down the checklist: can the property be insured affordably, and how exposed is it to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire or disruptions to water and power sup...