Banks Are Finally Realizing What Climate Change Will Do to Housing

1. 2024-06-17 at 6:36 PM UTC

   #1
   

   Obbe Alan What? [annoy my right-angled speediness]
   Banks Are Finally Realizing What Climate Change Will Do to Housing
   
   

   Big money is finally waking up to the fact that climate change is a gigantic problem. Property is the world’s greatest store of wealth, with a total value just shy of $380 trillion. This is four times global GDP. But there’s a new kind of toxic asset emerging in property portfolios. The number of homes in what you might call “subprime” locations is rising and, in some parts of the world, property value—like a crumbing coastline—is at risk of erosion. Lenders are getting noticeably more reluctant to lend against these assets. No wonder. In the Asia-Pacific region, nearly one in 10 properties owned by real estate investment trusts could be at “high risk” of climate-change-related damage—particularly those on seafronts, a report from climate risk consultancy XDI announced in May.