Tue, 18 Mar 2025

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 Disasters spur investment in flood and fire risk tech

Services that assess climate change risks are springing up for home buyers, insurers and lenders.
Government Scheme Helps Homeowners with Flood Risk Insurance A government scheme providing affordable insurance for homeowners in areas of high-flood risk has helped many people, including Claire Sneddon, who experienced a flood at her home in Trowell, Nottingham. Despite being told by the estate agent that flooding was a once-in-a-lifetime event, Storm Babet caused water to enter her property for five hours, damaging flooring and woodwork. Climate Change Increases Flood Risk According to the UK Environment Agency's updated National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA), 6.3 million properties in England are at risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water, and this number could increase to around 8 million by 2050 due to climate change. New Tools Help Assess Climate Risk To help people and companies assess climate risk, new tools are being developed, including a portal where users can check their long-term flood risk. The Environment Agency plans to launch this portal soon. Other services, such as Climate X, use digital twins of the Earth to simulate different extreme weather events and their potential impact on properties. Insurers Use New Tools to Manage Costs Banks and property companies are using these new tools to assess climate risk and manage costs. For example, Faura analyzes the resilience of homes and commercial buildings to help insurers determine whether a property will still be standing after a disaster. Homebuyers Consider Climate Risk With the increasing awareness of climate change, homebuyers are now considering climate risk when making purchasing decisions. Redfin estimates the percentage chance of natural disasters occurring up to the next 30 years across each property it markets.
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