Assessing Transition Risk in Valuations

Standardising the treatment and disclosure of transition risks means the real estate industry can account for the true costs of decarbonisation, enabling investment into retrofit measures and the development of sustainable assets.

The Challenge

The real estate industry is a major contributor to global emissions, yet progress on decarbonising existing buildings remains slow. A lack of clear methods for assessing and pricing climate-related transition risks and opportunities is distorting asset values and slowing investment in the retrofitting of existing buildings—putting long-term value and progress at risk.

Breaking the value deadlock: enabling action on decarbonisation explores how current property valuation practices are impeding the industry’s progress toward decarbonisation and examines the potential impacts on investment markets, cities, and communities.

How to Assess Transition Risks in Property Valuations

The ULI C Change Transition Risk Assessment Guidelines provide a standardised framework for assessing and disclosing climate transition risks within property valuations. valuations. By identifying 12 material risks, the guidelines help property owners and managers understand which risks can be quantified and integrated into discounted cash flow models, which require ongoing monitoring, and how these risks may influence financial assumptions—ultimately supporting more consistent disclosure across the real estate industry.

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDELINES

The Preserve Tool

We are developing a tool called Preserve to facilitate the industry-wide adoption of the Transition Risk Assessment Guidelines.

Preserve is an open-source solution designed to support the consistent and transparent integration of transition risk into discounted cash flow (DCF) models, enabling real estate investors to reflect climate transition impacts in financial decision-making.

Introduction to Preserve

To learn more about why we are developing the tool, and to hear from industry experts on how the tool can help to drive financial resilience and decarbonisation, watch this webinar.

See the Prototype

Catch up on our latest workshop where we showcased an early prototype and explored key questions we’re tackling with pioneer partners to ensure the tool is as useful as possible.

Next steps

A total of 17 leading investment managers and asset owners have piloted Preserve on live assets and portfolios. Feedback has been central to strengthening the evidence base and robustness of the tool and ensuring its outputs align with real-world investment and valuation processes.

While initial deployment will focus on Europe in mid-2026, plans are in place to extend the tool’s application to North America, building on growing interest from the global investment community.

Preserve Partners

Pioneer partners shaping the early evolution of Preserve

A number of C Change programme sponsors generously supported the tool’s foundational development.

Pilot companies helping test and refine the tool

A further 11 real estate investment organisations are taking part in a Pilot Programme which gives advance access to
Preserve and the opportunity to shape the tool’s development. You can learn more about the pilot programme here and if you are interested in getting involved get in touch.

Case Studies

Testing the ULI C Change Transition Risk Assessment Guidelines on real-world assets provides powerful insights.

To encourage adoption of the Transition Risk Assessment Guidelines at scale, we are working with members to test them on real assets and share the results in a series of case studies.

Find helpful insights from Savills Investment Management, Hines and Catella Investment Management as they share their experiences in Q&As.

VIEW CASE STUDIES

Hear from Lisette van Doorn, CEO of ULI Europe, explain why ULI developed the Transition Risk Assessment Guidelines.