Community of Practice in Real Estate: Balancing Sustainability & Affordability
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On May 14th, we launched our latest initiative, the “Community of Practice: Addressing Challenges in the Dutch Real Estate Sector,” by hosting the first in a series of three seminars. This initiative is aimed at bringing together institutional asset owners and, asset managers, and experts in real estate impact investing to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the sector today.
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Real estate holds immense potential to drive environmental and social transformation, both within the Netherlands and globally. However, the sector remains heavily reliant on traditional, carbon-intensive practices. The industry is at cross-road and calls for a transformational change. In parallel, the growing housing shortage both in the Netherlands and worldwide, requires innovative solutions that enable construction to become more sustainable but also faster and more cost-efficient. Addressing this is critical to ensure access to affordable housing, which remains a basic necessity in today’s world.
In our first seminar, discussions were centered around the topics of affordability & sustainability in the Dutch residential sector with panellists Hilke Nijmeijer (CBRE IM), Steve Goossens (APG AM), Maya Savelkoul (Bouwinvest) and how to manage transition risks & stranded assets with Stan Bertran (PGGM), Rogier Zuiderhoek (Achmea RE) and Charles van Thiel (GRESB).
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We opened the seminar with a keynote from Marsha Sinninghe, MSc MRE, - a.s.r. real estate who addressed the key challenges institutional investors face when allocating capital to the RE sector and the risks forthcoming from it. She underscored the urgency of aligning financial returns with measurable impact, particularly in two core areas: affordable housing and green buildings. As she highlighted, the real estate sector must rise to the occasion—not only to meet investment goals but to secure a more liveable, resilient future for both people and planet.
For the first part of our seminar, the panellists emphasised the role of common definitions and stable regulations as fundamental drivers of scaling (impact) investments and ensuring affordability and sustainability in the real estate sector. The current state of ever-evolving regulations in the Netherlands has created a non-conducive environment for investments, deterring both domestic and foreign sources of capital, thus hindering progress. Our panellists in concert agreed on the importance of having an impact framework and collaborative attitude between the asset owners and managers to develop an effective long-term strategy. Harmonised definitions, a concrete and clearly articulated theory of change and a long-term strategy rooted in intentionality, additionality and measurement, can go a long way to generate stable returns for the investors and address the challenges of the real estate sector. Additionally, government support through coherent, long-term regulations can make the market more attractive for both domestic and international investors.
The second panel, focused on managing transition risks and stranded assets. While the lack of harmonised standards and definitions was a recurring theme, the conversation shifted quickly towards current best practices and possible future actionable solutions. Panellists emphasised the value of close collaboration with clients to steer towards select impact KPIs and enabling appropriate adherence to reach impact goals even amidst ambiguity. Currently, the Paris agreements remain the only widely accepted benchmark for compliance. However, it was acknowledged this is not always enough to provide a comprehensive guidance. There is a growing need for more unified benchmarking metrics to ensure buildings are climate-proof in the long run. Comprehensive benchmarking and KPIs should further cover the full life cycle of the assets. This means taking into consideration embodied carbon from the construction to the operational stage. Unified data standards and metrics will enhance measurement across portfolios to ensure physical assets are all in line with the latest climate requirements. For institutional investors, a standardised framework with clear guidelines (theory of change) and metrics are important to ensure stable returns in the long run and fulfil their fiduciary duty.
Furthermore, our panellists pointed out that the (loss of) value of assets over time goes hand in hand with their (loss of) indispensability. As such, the timing of retrofitting (carried out in alignment with the tenant’s approval) is essential for preserving value.Investors, must also factor in future risks' perception, evolving market preferences and long-term utility to avoid asset obsolescence.
As we closed the first seminar of our community of practice, a few key takeaways emerged: collaboration among stakeholders across the value chain, clarity on definitions, and long-term commitment are essential to solve for both financial and societal issues as we aim to transform the real estate sector. Tools such as the CRREM (Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor) can help investors assess their assets on a global scale, but what is needed now is embracing full life-cycle thinking and investing with intention so that we can steer the industry towards a more sustainable, affordable and resilient future.​
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This was the first of three seminar that we will host over the course of this year. The seminars are designed for knowledge building and best-practice sharing for institutional investors and relevant stakeholders of the real estate industry.
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The second session of this series will take place on the 11th of September where we will dicuss
a) Social impact and net-zero investments
b) The future of care-oriented housing in the Netherlands
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If you are interested in joining us, please reach out to our colleague and Director of the 10% Target Program - Simona Benvenuti here.
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