News / Insights

The RICS Sustainability Report 2025 presents the results of surveys conducted among more than 3,500 real estate professionals, offering a snapshot of industry sentiment on ESG issues. The report shows that growth in demand for green buildings has slowed over the past year, following very strong results between 2021 and 2024. The Sustainable Building Index (SBI)—the RICS indicator that measures, on an annual basis, the balance between those reporting an increase and those reporting a decrease in demand for sustainable real estate—remains in positive territory globally (+30), with Europe at an even higher level (+39). The push toward sustainable real estate appears less intense, however, primarily due to rising financing and construction costs and uncertainty regarding the impact of new regulations on investment returns. In Europe, investors place greater value on green certification and climate resilience than in other regions, reflecting the impact of regulatory instruments such as the EPBD Directive on energy performance in buildings, the EU Taxonomy, and the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). At the same time, European occupiers focus primarily on energy efficiency, interior space quality, and reducing operating costs, while the main barriers to investment remain high upfront costs and a lack of evidence of economic returns. In the construction sector, Europe stands out for its high level of awareness regarding energy efficiency, water conservation, and carbon footprint reduction, but it also faces significant challenges. In fact, it is one of the areas where the measurement of carbon emissions in projects is least widespread: about half of European professionals report that they do not measure embodied carbon. Familiarity with circular economy practices is also lower than in other regions, despite being recognized as increasingly important. On the biodiversity front, Europe shows the highest level of disagreement or neutrality regarding its relevance, indicating widespread uncertainty about the sector’s role in protecting ecosystems, despite a general global consensus on the need for action in this area. The main driver of change remains tied to regulation, especially at the European level: public policies are considered crucial for accelerating decarbonization, climate resilience, standardization of metrics, and the adoption of mandatory lifecycle emissions reporting. However, the practical adoption of the required measures is proceeding slowly, hampered by costs, complexity, and a lack of technical expertise. To bridge this gap, the RICS report highlights the need to strengthen professional skills, support investments in energy retrofits, and develop common approaches for defining zero-emission and resilient buildings, so that the real estate sector can align with the 2050 climate goals.

Download the report: https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/reports/Sustainability-report-2025.pdf