Knight Frank has launched the first of a three-part series examining how the industry is meeting the commercial property retrofit challenge. The report was launched by Flora Harley, Knight Frank’s head of ESG research, speaking at Proptech Connect, Europe’s largest event dedicated to technologies within the built environment.

Obsolescence is accelerating, driven by growing regulatory, physical, financial, and functional risks associated with sustainability. This is starkly demonstrated by statistics showing that 70% of commercial property floor space is currently rated EPC C or below and, therefore, at risk of being unlettable if previously proposed minimum standards are implemented in the UK.

Entitled Meeting the Commercial Property Retrofit Challenge, will outline the challenges and potential strategies and solutions for addressing these risks, with part one focusing on exploring the key factors that commercial real estate owners and investors should consider when looking to develop a successful decarbonisation strategy for their portfolios.

The report contains new Knight Frank research demonstrating the scale of the challenge and how the lack of real estate assets that meet the requisite sustainability performance is already impacting market movement and property valuations. The key findings are: