In today's climate-aware economy, the environmental footprint of buildings is no longer a background issue—it is central to the future of urban development. With nearly 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions attributed to the built environment, real estate plays a defining role in shaping sustainable cities. Governments worldwide are respond...
Reducing carbon emissions from existing buildings is a crucial step in the global transition towards net zero. With nearly 80% of the buildings that will be in use by 2050 already standing today according to the World Economic Forum, addressing their carbon footprint is essential. The real estate industry currently accounts for 39% of global energy...
According to Our World in Data, the world emits around 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases each year, which is equal to the amount of emissions generated by driving a car around the world more than 10 billion times. The emissions today are far above pre-industrial levels, causing earth average temperature to rise and placing ecosystems in a vulne...
In the field of urban economics, it is well understood that real estate prices typically decline with increasing distance from Central Business Districts (CBDs). This relation is largely due to the higher cost and longer time associated with commuting from more distant locations, a key factor in property valuation. Current data shows an evident pat...
The effectiveness of government policies in stabilizing home prices has drawn massive attention among global policymakers. The attention is justified: according to the IMF, despite ever-tightening policy measures in the post-crisis era, supported by cheap financing, global real house prices have recovered to their 2007 peak levels (see Figure 1). A...
Global trade disputes are nothing new, as can be seen in the below figure that shows complaints lodged with the WTO since its formation 23 years ago, in 1995. Historically, most disputes were able to be resolved within 15 months, and the party lodging the complaint usually wins. However, the United States recently decided to adopt a vastly differen
China’s East Coast became wealthy over the past decades thanks to its access to the sea and hence to global trade. Today, the Belt-and-Road initiative starts to link China’s inland cities to the intercontinental trading routes. The augmented revival of the Silk Road raises the strategic importance of those cities and further enhances their strong economic growth.
As a younger generation enters the workforce in Asia’s metropolises, various concepts catering for a trendy lifestyle, and at the same time increasing urban density, are emerging in the real estate sector. This phenomenon is further driven and supported by a long-term urbanization trend in Asia. One of the main reasons to live and work in a city is
It has long been established that buildings are responsible for over one third of all resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. With real estate being the biggest asset class, sustainable investing in property seems like an obvious thing to do. Like so often, however, the real challenge lies in the execution, and in particular in the credible assessment of true sustainability.