Chicago, London, Singapore (December 03, 2024) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, today announces its updated scores from the 2024 ‘Principles for Responsible Investment’ (“PRI”) Assessment Report, the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment.
LaSalle earned four stars across the assessment categories applicable to LaSalle, pertaining to Policy Governance and Strategy, Direct – Listed Equity – Active Fundamental, Confidence Building Measures, and Direct Real Estate, as well as rated at or above the peer median in three of the four categories. The results show improvement over last year’s assessment, in which LaSalle secured four stars in three categories.
LaSalle’s 2024 PRI Assessment Report results include:
Julie Manning, Global Head of Climate and Carbon at LaSalle, commented: “These latest PRI results underscore LaSalle’s deep commitment to advancing the sustainability priorities of our clients in ways that drive investment performance. We will continue our focus on incorporating sustainability efforts across our strategies over the next year as we build on our industry-leading position and trusted partnerships with our clients.”
ENDS
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages $88.2 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q3 2024. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
About the PRI
The PRI is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. It works to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. The PRI encourages investors to use responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks, but does not operate for its own profit; it engages with global policymakers but is not associated with any government; it is supported by, but not part of, the United Nations. For more information about UN PRI and its ESG benchmarking and reporting for real estate, please visit https://www.unpri.org/.
This article first appeared in the December 2024/January 2025 edition of PERE.
LaSalle’s Ryu Konishi and Julie Manning spoke to PERE about the growing importance of sustainability as part of investment decision-making and LaSalle’s approach to creating a global real estate net zero carbon pathway strategy.
A 360-degree approach to decarbonization
The importance of sustainability as part of investment decision-making in the real estate space has been on the rise for quite some time. In fact, the various physical risks associated with climate change, and the regulatory imperative of transitioning to net zero, are now so significant that these factors are gradually filtering through in the form of real-world valuation impacts.
For real estate investors, this raises both risks and opportunities. LaSalle Investment Management is one firm that was early to recognize this, having set up a global sustainability committee back in 2008. More recently, it has worked with the Urban Land Institute to develop a decision-making framework for assessing physical climate risk in relation to its real estate investments.
According to Julie Manning, global head of climate and carbon, and Ryu Konishi, fund manager of Lp3F (LaSalle’s global real estate net-zero strategy), this kind of approach to risk analysis – both broad and deep – is essential. So, where should investors start? And what might a determined decarbonization program in real estate look like?
Toronto (October 22, 2024) – LaSalle Canada Property Fund (“LCPF” or “the fund”), LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”)’s core real estate fund in Canada, has achieved the highest rating of five stars from the 2024 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (“GRESB”), an industry-recognized global Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) benchmark for asset managers. Additionally, LCPF has been named the Real Estate Sector Leader for all Americas Private Diversified Funds, ranking first out of 112 entities in this category.
LaSalle Canada Property Fund scored 90/100 on the annual assessment, earning first place within its 17-member sector peer group. This achievement highlights the fund’s market-leading sustainability initiatives that continue to play a key role in the active asset management of the LCPF portfolio. In addition to the recognition for LCPF, seven other LaSalle funds and separate accounts domiciled across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific regions were awarded a 5-star rating, with five additional LaSalle funds achieving a four-star rating.
Elena Alschuler, LaSalle Head of Sustainability, Americas, said: “This latest recognition as a GRESB sector leader reflects LaSalle’s ongoing dedication to meeting our clients’ sustainability goals, while enhancing the market value of our properties. Since its inception in 2017, LCPF has viewed sustainability as a key component of a high-quality property. This investment view informs decisions about both acquisitions and capital improvements, resulting in a portfolio that is in a leading position amongst peers.”
Sam Barbieri, LaSalle Managing Director of Development and Fund Management, added: “LCPF stands as a strong example of our commitment to both sustainability and investment excellence. This year’s GRESB score and our position as the Real Estate Sector Leader for all Americas Private Diversified Funds are a testament to the team’s hard work over the past year developing and embracing new strategies that align with the fund’s philosophy of ensuring ESG goals are met, while simultaneously generating income for clients.”
The LCPF portfolio exemplifies sustainability across its diverse properties, with several standout examples highlighting this commitment. Montréal’s Maison Manuvie boasts net zero carbon performance, Ottawa’s 275 Slater is undergoing sustainability upgrades targeting LEED Certification, and the Tricont logistics properties in Whitby were designed to meet the prestigious LEED® Silver certifications through the Canada Green Building Council. These assets, among others in the portfolio, demonstrate LCPF’s broad commitment to environmental responsibility across various property types and locations.
LCPF’s portfolio totals nearly 9.4 million square feet across Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal – the key markets in Canada’s investable real estate universe. The portfolio includes industrial, multifamily, office, retail and mixed-use properties, along with select development projects in these sectors.
ENDS
About LaSalle Canada Property Fund (LCPF)
LCPF is an open-ended fund targeting core properties in major markets across Canada. The fund is targeting commitments from Canadian and global institutional investors seeking access to the Canadian real estate market through a diversified, income-oriented vehicle. Launched in 2017, the fund aims to provide investors with immediate exposure to a diverse and mature portfolio comprised of office, industrial, mixed-use, retail and multifamily assets. Through its near-term pipeline of potential future investments, the fund will seek to take advantage of mispriced assets as it continues to grow.
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages US$84.8 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q2 2024. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
About GRESB
GRESB is an industry-driven organization transforming the way capital markets assess the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real asset investments. More than 900 property companies and funds, jointly representing more than USD 3.6 trillion in assets under management, participated in the 2018 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. The Infrastructure Assessment covered 75 funds and 280 assets, and 25 portfolios completed the Debt Assessment. GRESB data and analytical tools are used by more than 75 institutional and retail investors, including pension funds and insurance companies, collectively representing over USD 18 trillion in institutional capital, to engage with investment managers to enhance and protect shareholder value. Greater transparency on ESG issues has become the norm, with GRESB widely recognized as the global ESG benchmark for real assets. For more information about GRESB and its ESG benchmarking and reporting for real estate, please visit https://gresb.com/gresb-real-estate-assessment/.
NOTE: This information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
Chicago, London, Singapore (October 21, 2024) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, today announces its results from the 2024 GRESB assessment, an industry-recognized global Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) benchmark for asset managers.
Eighteen of the firm’s funds and separate accounts, domiciled across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region, participated in the 2024 assessment, of which seven achieved a 5-star rating and five achieved a 4-star rating. Six of the firm’s funds ranked in the top three within their sector peer groups, with both LaSalle Canada Property Fund and LaSalle China Logistics Venture earning first place within their respective sector peer groups.
Those LaSalle funds that achieved a 4 or 5-star rating in the 2024 GRESB assessment are listed below:
Julie Manning, Global Head of Climate and Carbon, LaSalle commented: “LaSalle is committed to delivering upon our clients’ sustainability goals in ways that also drive investment performance, and these impressive results reflect this effort. As performance drivers, sustainability factors are key to our corporate strategy in addition to being a focus throughout our investment process. As such, we will continue to embed sustainability further into each function across our operations and maintain our position as a leader in the industry.”
ENDS
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages US$84.8 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q2 2024. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
PropertyEU spoke with LaSalle’s Ryu Konishi and Adam Donohue about the drivers of and challenges to sustainable investments around the world at Expo Real 2024.
Learn more about how LaSalle is building pathways to a more sustainable future below.
This article first appeared in the Fall 2024 edition of NAREIM Dialogues.
LaSalle’s Julie Manning writes about our latest report with ULI that provides an industry-wide framework for commercial real estate to address how physical climate risk data can be used in decision-making and supporting investment performance.
Using data to evaluate physical climate risk
Measuring physical climate risk is of growing importance to institutional real estate managers and their investors, at both the individual property and portfolio levels. Of the $850 billion of commercial real estate assets tracked by NPI, LaSalle estimates $285 billion, or 34%, is situated in high and medium-high climate risk zones in the US.
Increasingly, being able to assess an asset’s risk exposure, and knowing how to price that risk into management strategies, are essential parts of operating a portfolio. While data is key to this assessment, understanding how to leverage the right data is even more important. With so much climate risk data available in the market, how can organizations manage and find data that gives them manageable, impactful and usable insights? And more importantly, what should managers do with these insights?
Dave White, Head of Real Estate Debt Strategies, and Brett Ormrod, Net Zero Carbon Lead for Europe, discuss the current and future state of green lending across Europe.
While lending volumes across the market remain volatile, data shows one continuously increasing metric: the demand for green loans, which is being driven by the ever-growing sustainability requirements from both investors and sponsors.
Dave White and Brett Ormrod discuss the challenges that borrowers and investors are facing, and how we at LaSalle are navigating these dynamics. They discuss how green loans are impacting the European real estate market, what they can mean for investors’ bottom lines, and the overall opportunity not just for green loans, but for greener assets in investors’ portfolios.
Want to read more?
CHICAGO (September 17, 2024) – Elena Alschuler, LaSalle’s Americas Head of Sustainability has been recognized with the Nareit 2024 Sustainable Leadership Award on behalf of JLL Income Property Trust.
Nareit presented the inaugural Sustainability Impact Awards at its REITworks: 2024 Sustainability & Social Responsibility Conference in McLean, VA. The awards recognize REITs for implementing sustainable practices that demonstrate leadership, ingenuity, and environmental impact in the commercial real estate industry.
Elena was recognized for her leadership in sustainability in the built environment, and her collaboration with industry peers to share knowledge and develop best practices. This is exemplified in Elena’s recent role as chair for the CRREM North America Working Group which is working to develop decarbonization pathways to benchmark transition risk.
Nareit Senior Vice President of Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability, Jessica Long said: “We are excited to highlight Elena and JLL Income Property Trust who are raising the bar for advancing sustainability practices in their operations, buildings, communities, and across the broader REIT and commercial real estate industry.”
LaSalle Global Head of Climate and Carbon, Julie Manning said: “This award is a well-deserved recognition of Elena’s exceptional contributions to sustainable real estate practices. Her innovative strategies and tireless efforts have not only elevated LaSalle’s program but are also working to set new benchmarks for the entire industry. Elena’s work exemplifies our commitment to exploring sustainable solutions that can drive investment performance.”
JLL Income Property Trust, President and CEO, Allan Swaringen said: “At JLL Income Property Trust, we believe sustainability initiatives can drive value and mitigate risk. We integrate these sustainability principles in our portfolio construction, acquisitions and asset management activities, resulting in a tailored approach to each property in our portfolio. Elena has been at the forefront of driving these efforts, and this recognition by Nareit is a testament to her commitment.”
ENDS
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages US$84.8 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q2 2024. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
About JLL Income Property Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZIPTAX; ZIPTMX; ZIPIAX; ZIPIMX)
JLL Income Property Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZIPTAX; ZIPTMX; ZIPIAX; ZIPIMX), is a daily NAV REIT that owns and manages a diversified portfolio of high quality, income-producing apartment, industrial, grocery-anchored retail, healthcare and office properties located in the United States. JLL Income Property Trust expects to further diversify its real estate portfolio over time, including on a global basis.
About Nareit
Nareit serves as the worldwide representative voice for REITs and publicly traded real estate companies with an interest in U.S. real estate. Nareit’s members are REITs and other real estate companies throughout the world that own, operate, and finance income-producing real estate, as well as those firms and individuals who advise, study, and service those businesses. Nareit’s focus is to broaden and deepen REIT ownership to help a growing set of everyday American investors enjoy the benefits of holding real estate in a well-diversified portfolio, while increasing capital sources that invest in America’s future. Nareit is the exclusive registered trademark of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Inc.®, 1875 I St., NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20006-5413. Follow us on REIT.com. Copyright© 2024 by Nareit®. All rights reserved.
A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks.
A simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.
— Proverbs 22:3
King Solomon’s words of wisdom have been passed down to us for 3,000 years. They still resonate, especially in this modern translation,1 even though the “trouble” is no longer invading Assyrians or Babylonians but the type of danger we bring on ourselves through an all-too-human combination of ingenuity, hubris and ignorance.
Watch any movie from the 1930s to the 1960s and you will see actors inhaling tobacco smoke with abandon. We know better now. Like the generational awareness of the harm caused by tobacco products, real estate owners have gradually become aware of the dangers lurking in certain building materials and contaminated soil. Starting in the 1960s, societies have spent fortunes cleaning up “miracle products.” Asbestos, PCBs, dry cleaning solvents, herbicides and lead pipes were all considered state-of-the-art technologies at various points in human history. None of these inventions were designed with the intention of killing people. They all started with a noble purpose – whether suppressing catastrophic fires, insulating transformers, cleaning wool suits or producing a pleasing nicotine buzz that also curbed the appetite. The “externalities” associated with societal damage from the use of these products took decades to discover and billions to eradicate.
Greenhouse gas emissions share a common ancestry with these miracle products. Heating buildings with diesel fuels, running gas lines through city streets, producing electricity with coal-fired plants—these were all logical, economical, and sensible solutions to the problem of bringing energy to homes, businesses and buildings of all types. The industrial revolution accelerated the growth of cities and raised the quality of life for millions of people by dragging them out of rural poverty. As we now know, society’s dependence on fossil fuels creates new problems which must be dealt with.
The recognition that miracle products can carry hidden (or not so hidden) dangers follows a predictable pattern. Here is what the step-by-step process often looks like:
Evidence and awareness. An environmental problem often requires decades of scientific study and mountains of evidence to convince people that a change is necessary. Even as this evidence accumulates, vested interests organize counterattacks to convince society that the problem is non-existent or over-stated. Eventually the harm to human life becomes so obvious that denial becomes a “fringe position.”
Market demand. In many cases, the process of partial “market adjustment” can begin ahead of government action. Voluntary data collection and industry-led reforms start the slow process of change. In the case of greenhouse gases, the marginal contribution of each emitter is so small, and so embedded in society, that government interventions sometimes lag market-led shifts (e.g., the adoption of LED lighting or heat pumps).
Regulatory response. Yet, government interventions are almost always needed to accelerate and complete behavioral change to truly eliminate harm to the environment and to human life created by “externalities.” These regulations and policy responses often get pushback as competing outcomes are debated in the political arena. Economists agree that putting a price on carbon would be the most efficient and effective solution, but a market mechanism for carbon pricing requires government intervention — in the form of a carbon “tax” or to set up an emissions trading scheme.
Benchmarks and best practices. Eventually, the rise of data benchmarks and peer group comparisons begins to shed light on who, where and how successful “treatments” are applied to any environmental problem. Engineering and laboratory science helps inform this stage of the process, as does public health or industry group data. Integration with market investment processes and decisions leads to a focus on reversing years of damage to the environment and compliance with new regulations and guidelines. At this stage, market-driven and regulatory-driven changes start to converge.
Price integration. Feedback loops are established where type 1 errors (false positives) and type 2 errors (false negative—or overlooked problems) are exposed.2 In loosely regulated situations like climate change, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) takes hold as the change process gets partially or fully priced by consumers and producers. Economists and policy analysts favor the practice of placing a “price” on an externality to compensate society for the harm. In practice, though, compensatory payments to offset environmental damage are often decided through the courts and litigation.
Continued market and regulatory evolution. The enforcement of tighter regulations also follows its own trajectory depending on the governance structure of a particular country or urban jurisdiction and the toxicity of the problem. The discipline of epidemiology, using population data and public health analysis, is especially helpful at this stage of refining the policy solutions.
The Transition from “Data” to “Wisdom”
For the de-carbonization of buildings, various markets and countries are well into Step 3 (Regulatory Response) and Step 4 (Benchmarks and Best Practices). In Europe the “theory of change” is focused more on EU-wide or national policies to promote energy disclosures through top-down regulatory solutions. In the United States, the emphasis is based more on voluntary pledges, market solutions and regulations that are based on specific local jurisdictions. In most developed countries, steps 5 (Price Integration) and 6 (Market and Regulatory Evolution) are underway, but both have a long way to go.
The rise of real estate sustainability benchmarks (like GRESB) has accelerated in recent years. In many cases, they have expanded to include social factors and tenant well-being alongside environmental metrics. The next hurdle, though, is to establish materiality tests that infuse meaning, and determine financial impacts based on the volumes of reporting that the industry has started to produce and disclose.
Reading through ESG reports often reveals the triumph of reporting and public relations over salience or relevance. The conjoint challenges of reducing building emissions alongside improving the well-being of building users and the surrounding communities can be obscured by data denominated in less familiar metrics like tons of CO2 or Kilowatt hours. In time, and with experience, the emphasis will shift to what truly moves the needle on all elements of the “sustainable investing” paradigm—and which metrics give off misleading or meaningless “virtue” signals.
Financial metrics align most closely with the “fiduciary duty” of an investor. Moreover, stakeholders have decades of experience analyzing and interpreting financial data. It will take additional time and effort to convert environmental data into financial terms or to simply raise the consciousness of how to interpret energy and emission data in its own right. (LaSalle’s work on the “Value of Green” synthesizes studies of the evidence linking sustainability metrics and financial outcomes. An update on this work is below.)
In writing Proverbs, King Solomon gathered centuries of wisdom based on experience. In the modern world, we often believe that the steps to wisdom are built on a foundation of knowledge, information, and data. The famous “DIKW” hierarchy has been a mainstay of information sciences since the 1930s. Sustainability wisdom is still in the process of being formulated and likely requires more time to make progress. Fortunately, the foundations of this wisdom are already being put in place—first through data (the modern way to refer to many, many experiences), then information (organized and analyzed data), eventually leading to knowledge (patterns are identified and the “what” and “why” questions are answered) and finally reaching the status of accumulated wisdom (how to respond). This is a path that humans have traveled before. More lives are at stake this time around and the wisdom may not be easily agreed upon by all industries, countries and stakeholders. Nevertheless, the search for sustainability wisdom must continue and time is of the essence.
Revisiting LaSalle’s “Value of Green”
In September 2023, LaSalle published our ISA Focus report What is the value of green? Looking at the evidence linking sustainability and real estate outcomes. The report presents a framework on how sustainable attributes of properties can be viewed as both as drivers and protectors of value, along with showcasing findings from the broader literature. We continue to maintain a Value of Green tracker, monitoring research on this subject as it is produced. Some of the findings that have surfaced since the release of our initial report are worth highlighting:
Beyond the direct links between sustainability and historical investment performance in terms of return, rent and value premiums, more signals are emerging as available data on the topic grows, and becomes increasingly forward looking:
Beyond results based on backward-looking data, detailed case studies of investments into sustainable initiatives are being published. The JLL report “Future-Proof Your Investments“ showcased opportunities for sustainable New York offices; another example is CBRE’s report “The impact of on-site rooftop solar on logistics property values.”
Tobias Lindqvist
Strategist, Climate and Carbon Lead, London
Sources:
CBRE (March 2024) UK Sustainability Index Results to Q4 2023. CBRE
P. Torres, G. Bolino, P. Stepan (2024) The Green Tipping Point. JLL
T.Leahy (2022) London and Paris Offices: Green Premium Emerges. MSCI
P. Torres, J. del Alamo (July 2024) Future-proof your investments. JLL
D. Marina, J. Tromp, T. Vezyridis, O. Bruusgaard (July 2023) The impact of on-site rooftop solar PV on logistics property values. CBRE
O. Muir, Y. Chen, T. Metcalf et.al (Dec 2023) Green premium: Study of New York and London Real Estate finds strong evidence for a ‘green premium’. UBS
What can we learn from simulations?
The de-carbonization of buildings is taking place in a complex and ever-changing environment. It is a multi-dimensional problem replete with uncertain outcomes, regulatory change, shifting societal norms and markets, and the politicization of sensitive issues.
At the June 2024 MIT World Real Estate Forum, Professor Roberto Rigobon unveiled a “sustainability simulation” game patterned on his pathbreaking work on social preferences for the European Commission. The technique shows how the traditional economic conceit that we make “resource trade-offs” does not accurately capture how humans make decisions when faced with multi-dimensional choices.
In the simulation, the audience was given nine choices for different retrofit projects for a commercial building. Each choice resulted in simultaneous movement across three metrics that the audience had already established that they cared about — changes in NOI (profitability), CO2 emissions, and tenant satisfaction/well-being. The cost of the projects was amortized into the NOI calculations and the other metrics were also calibrated based on actual data from the US.
The simulation showed that a knowledgeable real estate audience rarely solves just for “pure profits” at the expense of tenant well-being or CO2 emissions. The simulation also mimicked reality—where sometimes profitability moves in synch with reduced CO2 emissions and other times it moves it moves in the opposite direction. The simulation was designed to show how the co-movement depends on the local market and the type of de-carbonization project. Tenant well-being and CO2 emissions could be implicitly linked to revenue when and if participants believe that occupancy, rents and capital raising are all interconnected.
Through their choices, the audience tried to optimize across all three priorities at once — leading to an interesting result that revealed their average willingness to “pay” to reduce a ton of CO2 emissions of about $200 ton. Yet, if asked directly how much they would pay to reduce a ton of greenhouse gas coming from a building, it seems unlikely that many would have volunteered to pay that much. This finding also shows how the language of profitability and returns is much more advanced than the metrics and concepts associated with either decarbonization or tenant satisfaction. And that all these metrics are linked, but not fully integrated in the minds of real estate professionals.
Only a few participants in the game focused only on reducing CO2 (at the expense of decent profits). And just a few focused exclusively on profitability at the expense of tenant satisfaction or CO2 emissions. This seems like a reasonable facsimile of what enlightened investors will do — especially when they know that their actions are being disclosed. As we learn more from these simulations, it is possible that policy makers will be able to refine the mix of incentives and regulations that govern the real estate industry.
Jacques Gordon
Cambridge, Massachusetts
LOOKING AHEAD >
Footnotes
1 The Message, translated from the Hebrew scriptures by Eugene Peterson (1993-2002).
2 These are all part of the learning that occurs with any “treatment hypothesis.” The science of public health provides solid evidence to weigh whether the “treatment” is helping, hurting or having no impact on the eradication of the underlying disease. In real estate, a good example of this is the gradual discovery that with certain types of asbestos, it is more dangerous to remove it than to “encapsulate” it in an existing structure. The science of “decarbonization” is still being established to determine whether, for example, the mass production of lithium batteries does as much harm as the burning of fossil fuels. For real estate and climate change, the “treatment” will likely focus on energy efficiency/ decarbonization interventions that are a combination of government penalties/incentives and voluntary actions. The effectiveness of these treatments will depend on compliance, market response, and how well interventions find acceptance through the political process.
Important Notice and Disclaimer
This publication does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or any interests in any investment products advised by, or the advisory services of, LaSalle Investment Management (together with its global investment advisory affiliates, “LaSalle”). This publication has been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of recipients and under no circumstances is this publication on its own intended to be, or serve as, investment advice. The discussions set forth in this publication are intended for informational purposes only, do not constitute investment advice and are subject to correction, completion and amendment without notice. Further, nothing herein constitutes legal or tax advice. Prior to making any investment, an investor should consult with its own investment, accounting, legal and tax advisers to independently evaluate the risks, consequences and suitability of that investment.
LaSalle has taken reasonable care to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate and has been obtained from reliable sources. Any opinions, forecasts, projections or other statements that are made in this publication are forward-looking statements. Although LaSalle believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, LaSalle does not make any express or implied representation or warranty, and no responsibility is accepted with respect to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of the facts, opinions, estimates, forecasts, or other information set out in this publication or any further information, written or oral notice, or other document at any time supplied in connection with this publication. LaSalle does not undertake and is under no obligation to update or keep current the information or content contained in this publication for future events. LaSalle does not accept any liability in negligence or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by any party resulting from reliance on this publication and nothing contained herein shall be relied upon as a promise or guarantee regarding any future events or performance.
By accepting receipt of this publication, the recipient agrees not to distribute, offer or sell this publication or copies of it and agrees not to make use of the publication other than for its own general information purposes.
Copyright © LaSalle Investment Management 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means, whether graphically, electronically, mechanically or otherwise howsoever, including without limitation photocopying and recording on magnetic tape, or included in any information store and/or retrieval system without prior written permission of LaSalle Investment Management.
The arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) is a watershed moment for the entire world, and our industry is no different.
AI is already transforming how real estate investment operates, as managers use the technology to streamline operations. Generative AI is being used to automate time-consuming tasks, like investor due diligence, data analysis, and the processing of contractual documents. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of AI’s untapped potential in our industry. Used right, the technology can deliver real value for us and our clients.
At LaSalle, we are constantly adapting to the ever-changing technological landscape. By embracing new opportunities, we can reap the substantial benefits of technological innovations as they transform the world around us, rather than watch them pass us by.
LaSalle’s technology strategy is setting an industry-leading example of how companies can invest in the right technologies, execute the right strategies, and drive the value of new technologies for clients, industry, and people.
What is LaSalle’s technology strategy?
At LaSalle, our technology strategy is driven by IDEAS – Invest, Data, Efficiency, AI and Sales.
The five components of our IDEAS framework are designed to guide our company’s decisions on technological investments to ensure we are deriving maximum benefit in priority areas:
The framework ensures LaSalle’s teams stay ahead; always ready to adopt innovative new capabilities that can transform the way we work.
How does AI fit into LaSalle’s technology strategy?
We have made AI one of the central components of our IDEAS framework.
As an entity of JLL, LaSalle has access to JLL GPT – the world’s first large language model built by and for the commercial real estate industry. This is a competitive advantage that we leverage to stay ahead. JLL GPT uses JLL’s own extensive commercial real estate data, and external data sources, employing AI to expedite and simplify workflows. JLL GPT has allowed LaSalle teams across the business to drive better working processes internally, enhance efficiency, and ultimately deliver results to our clients.
We spoke to LaSalle teams to find out how they are embracing AI to support their everyday work.
Using JLL GPT to unlock resources
Nicole Creguer, Associate Vice President of Operations, has been guiding the US Asset Management team on using JLL GPT to free up time for more strategic thinking, by taking on manual and administrative tasks.
Creguer is part of the Americas Generative AI Innovation Forum at LaSalle, a group which brings together representatives from LaSalle’s US teams to discuss and drive the latest AI solutions.
Creguer has brought many practical use cases back to her team, including using JLL GPT to analyze meeting transcripts, summarize notes, and finesse communications, ensuring the top-quality output of work.
“JLL GPT saves us huge time on administrative tasks, so we can focus on creating better analysis and adding more strategic value in our work,” Creguer explained.
Using JLL GPT for underwriting models
Matthew Sweiss, Associate Vice President, and Peter Passalino, Associate, are using JLL GPT to drive efficiency within LaSalle’s US Transactions team by streamlining the handling of large amounts of underwriting data.
“We were looking to use JLL GPT to build functionality into our portfolio underwriting models via Excel macros,” said Sweiss. “We wanted to enhance our ability and efficiency in underwriting very large commercial portfolio transactions – the goal being to create a seamless transition between our reporting software and underwriting Excel models.”
Sweiss and Passalino used JLL GPT to develop a macro, test it, and provide feedback to the AI tool. With the feedback inputted, JLL GPT was able to enhance the macro formula, until an ideal solution was provided.
“You would think it might take a while to develop a solution, but the process of inputting the original request, iterating with GPT on it, going through trial-and-error, and landing on a final version, took about a day,” explained Passalino.
“We’ve happily adopted this new solution, and we hope other teams use this to replicate the process as needed going forward,” says Sweiss.
Across the global business, LaSalle is following this example and embracing AI and JLL GPT to simplify work, drive efficiency, and excel productivity. JLL GPT holds immense potential to drive efficiency and value, fostering a commitment from LaSalle to push the boundaries of exploration, through IDEAS.
How does AI fit into LaSalle’s investments?
The IDEAS framework is intended to guide LaSalle’s internal technology strategy. But it is ultimately a reflection of the appetite for embracing innovation running through LaSalle.
This is an appetite that we bring not only to improving our internal business processes, but also to our external investment decisions.
At LaSalle, we are always considering opportunities to partner with others on pioneering solutions to the greatest challenges the real estate industry is facing today.
In partnership with JLL Property & Asset Management, LaSalle selected HANK to run a pilot scheme to test the use of AI powered technology in one of LaSalle’s client offices at 240 Blackfriars, London in 2022.
HANK integrates with the existing building management systems to monitor and ‘learn’ how the existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system operates. Using AI, energy models and other data inputs, HANK makes real-time micro-adjustments to optimise the operation of the HVAC equipment continuously.
“Using HANK has resulted in efficiencies across the board for 240 Blackfriars, including energy savings, cost savings, reduced carbon, and a positive working environment for tenants. This is an initiative born out of LaSalle’s openness to leverage new technologies. I look forward to exploring more ways for us to use innovation to deliver tangible benefits for our tenants and commercial clients.” – Brett Ormrod, Net Zero Carbon Lead, Europe
It might not yet be clear how transformational the arrival of AI will be for the real estate industry, but we can be certain it will be significant.
There is no doubt vast untapped potential for AI in our industry. LaSalle’s IDEAS framework is a gold-standard example of how real estate investment managers can invest in the right technologies and execute the right strategies to see the most benefit from technological innovations, like AI.
LaSalle has taken reasonable care to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate and has been obtained from reliable sources. Any opinions, forecasts, projections or other statements that are made in this publication are forward-looking statements. Although LaSalle believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, LaSalle does not make any express or implied representation or warranty, and no responsibility is accepted with respect to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of the facts, opinions, estimates, forecasts, or other information set out in this publication or any further information, written or oral notice, or other document at any time supplied in connection with this publication. LaSalle does not undertake and is under no obligation to update or keep current the information or content contained in this publication for future events. LaSalle does not accept any liability in negligence or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by any party resulting from reliance on this publication and nothing contained herein shall be relied upon as a promise or guarantee regarding any future events or performance.
By accepting receipt of this publication, the recipient agrees not to distribute, offer or sell this publication or copies of it and agrees not to make use of the publication other than for its own general information purposes.
Copyright © LaSalle Investment Management 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means, whether graphically, electronically, mechanically or otherwise howsoever, including without limitation photocopying and recording on magnetic tape, or included in any information store and/or retrieval system without prior written permission of LaSalle Investment Management.
This article first appeared in the July-August 2024 edition of IREI (subscription required)
What the data tells you and what it does not
Chase McWhorter, Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s managing director, Americas, recently spoke with Elena Alschuler, Head of Sustainability, Americas and Julie Manning, Global Head of Climate and Carbon at LaSalle, to examine the regional differences in interpreting physical climate-risk data. Their interview is published in the July/August issue of Institutional Real Estate Americas where they delve into the implications of climate migration on investors. The discussion sheds light on how investors incorporate climate-risk data into their investment decision-making processes.
Want to read more?
Recognition has grown substantially in recent years that climate risk can shape real estate investment outcomes. This owes to an increasing frequency and severity of loss events,1 surging insurance premiums,2 improving data availability and a mounting reporting burden driven by regulations.3 Investors have had to move quickly from acquiring basic climate risk literacy, to sourcing good quality climate risk data, to most recently, leveraging that data into improved investment decisions. There is a clear and rising likelihood that investors on the lagging edge of this process may underperform.
At LaSalle, we have sought to share insights from our own climate risk journey, combining that with broader analysis of our industry’s climate risk challenges and opportunities. In 2022, we partnered with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) on a report, How to choose, use, and better understand climate-risk analytics, which addressed the difficulties in selecting and evaluating climate data from an ever-changing and increasingly crowded—and sometimes contradictory—data provider landscape. In April, we released a new report with ULI, Physical Climate Risks and Underwriting Practices in Assets in Portfolios, which looks at how investors are taking these data and seeking to make better-informed buying, selling and portfolio construction decisions based on them.
While the joint ULI report takes an industry-wide view, this ISA Briefing looks at the topic through the lens of LaSalle’s own investment process. We present three case studies of our evaluation of climate risk on a regional, market and asset-level scale. These examples – one each from each of our global investment regions – illuminate how we are taking account of climate risk and lay out our views on issues investors should be thinking about.
In 2023, the US recorded 28 weather/climate disaster events for which losses exceeded $1 billion, the highest recorded number of distinct events exceeding that threshold.4 But of course, these events were not uniformly distributed across the country. To better understand the geographic predisposition of parts of the country to these hazards, LaSalle’s US Research and Strategy team developed two separate climate risk indexes, evaluating current and future climate risk. The indexes encompass a range of climate hazards, such as heatwaves, floods and wildfires, with earthquakes added as a non-climate threat. The current climate risk index harnesses machine learning to scrutinize hyper-local data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Meanwhile, the future climate risk projections rely on data from the Rhodium Group data set, as analyzed by ProPublica and assuming an RCP 8.5 scenario.5
Looking at climate risk at a regional scale has been useful in several ways. First, it can accelerate analysis of new opportunities by acting as a “yellow flag,” directing resources early in the underwriting process toward deeper analysis into asset-specific climate risk issues that may turn out to be red flags. Second, regional climate risk can be integrated into market-targeting tools, weighing it alongside other factors that influence real estate performance (for example, demographic variables such as population growth and real estate variables like the prospects for rental growth). To this end, LaSalle has embedded these climate risks scores into our proprietary Target Market Analyses (TMAs). Thirdly, it can help frame inquiry into how metro-level performance factors, such as migration patterns, can interact with climate risk over time.
On that last point, the map appears to beg a question about recent migration trends that have favored the Sunbelt.6 Are people disproportionally moving to at-risk places, and if so, why? An important follow-on question that is germane for investment strategy is whether climate change may eventually cause a reversal of recently observed migration patterns. Indeed, we do observe a discernible, moderately positive correlation7 (+29%) between climate risk exposure and increased migration over the past five years. This pattern holds, and even intensifies, when considering population growth projections for the next five years (+47% correlation).8
The implication is that regions facing severe climate challenges continue to draw new residents. This suggests that environmental risks may not yet be so widely recognized as to shape behavior. That said, a mere 8% of market value within the NCREIF Property Index’s (NPI) apartment asset base is situated in markets we classify as high-risk.9 This suggests the impact in the near-term on institutional real estate investors will be limited, at least until climate change is severe enough to routinely impact markets in the next less risky band, which encompasses 16% of total NPI apartment value.10 Either way, investors looking to the long-term would be wise to consider how people will respond to growing climate hazards in high-risk markets. If a major reaction is that Sunbelt denizens relocate back to the Rustbelt, that could have significant implications for regional economic growth and real estate market prospects.
Below the regional level, it is at the scale of an individual metro area where different degrees of exposure to climate risk can be evaluated with more granularity. It is often at this level where both in-place and planned efforts to mitigate the potential impacts of climate hazards can be identified. As we discussed in our 2022 ULI report, such measures can confound traditional climate risk data if they ignore its impact.
For example, when overlaying LaSalle’s global portfolio with raw data from our climate risk providers, Amsterdam and its broader ‘Randstad’ region stand out as especially exposed to sea-level rise. Not considering any protective infrastructure, we estimate that 52% of Amsterdam and 38% of Rotterdam commercial property would have a significant exposure to severe flood.11
Thankfully, the Dutch have been building dams and levees to protect their low landmass from flooding for centuries.12 Modern infrastructure investment accelerated in the wake of the 1953 North Sea flood – a combination of a severe European windstorm and high spring tide that caused the sea to flood land up to 5.6 meters above mean sea level.13 The ‘Deltawerken’ (Delta Works), now complete, consists of a set of storm surge barriers, locks and dams mainly located in the south of the country. But the Dutch flood defense program extends beyond the Delta Works,14 encompassing almost 1,500 constructed barriers, including more than 20,000 kilometers of dikes, enough to encircle the country over 15 times. In fact, the Delta Works program has evolved into the Delta Programme, a continuous project that take future effects of climate change into account, with a target of 100% of the Dutch population protected by floods not exceeding a 1 in 100,000-year event by 2050.15
The presence of these flood defense programs is of imperative importance when considering the Dutch markets for investments. We find that many climate risk data providers do not adjust for the Netherlands’ formidable stock of anti-flood infrastructure investment which mitigates much of the risk. Investors who act as uncritical “takers” of unadjusted climate risk stats may thus excessively underweight the Dutch market.
Below the regional and market level, the asset level is where the outcomes of climate hazards have the most direct impact on a building’s structural integrity or the ability to access and operate a property. An asset manager’s actions can directly influence a building’s capacity to withstand climate-related hazards. This tends to be the most impactful when such interventions are made during the design phase of the development.
For example, take the case of a LaSalle logistics development in Osaka, Japan, a city that has historically been vulnerable to flooding due to its geographical location, with much of the urban area made up of flat lowlands that make natural drainage a challenge in the event of tsunamis and heavy rainfall.16 The local city planning assesses the maximum level water could rise above sea level by submarket in the event of a flood. The flood height varies by location while considering additional factors such as the city’s infrastructure (i.e., floodgates and seawalls) and the overall elevation of the submarket. In the case of one of LaSalle’s Osaka Bay logistics developments, the subject warehouse is at a site where water levels could rise to three meters above sea level in the case of a flood.17
Seawalls, ranging in height from 5.7-7.2 meters protect the asset from extreme floods coming from the sea. To further mitigate the flood risk in the case of extreme rainfall or failure of the sea walls, the warehouse is designed with an elevated floor plate that puts the ground level 1.4 meters above mean sea level, and places key building equipment on the second floor, minimizing potential damage to the asset in the event of flood. This effort resulted in a 4.4 meter clearance above sea level (i.e., sea level + 1.4 meter buffer + 3 meters = 4.4 meters), which is above the required 3.5 meters above sea level (i.e., sea level + 1.4 meter buffer + 2.05 meters = 3.45 meters) for the location. In addition, the property management team has been trained and equipped to minimize flood damage on the first floor by closing the doors and shutters and placing sandbags in any gaps. By incorporating considerations to mitigate flood risk when designing the warehouse, the asset is well positioned to support tenants’ business continuity plans in the event of a flood.
Footnotes
1 Source: National Centres for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). See Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters
2 Source: The Climbing Costs to Insure US Commercial Real Estate, MSCI, November, 29 2023
3 The TCFD framework which has now been absorbed by IFRS’ ISSB, serves as the framework with which other international reporting standards setters seek to align such as the US SEC who voted in favour of The enhancement and standardization of climate-related disclosure, or the UK Government and the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan who will align its disclosure standards with ISSB.
4 According to the National Centers for Environment Information (NCEI). $1 billion threshold adjusted for inflation in historical periods. See https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/.
5 RCP refers to Representative Concentration Pathway, a standard for modeling future climate scenarios of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere. RCP 8.5 represents an extreme case scenario. See this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) glossary for more detail.
6 For more discussion on this trend, see our recent ISA Briefing, US migration trends and (U)rbanization.
7 Cross-sectional correlation between the LaSalle current climate risk index and the population change in the top 45 US metro areas between December 2018 and December 2023.
8 Cross-sectional correlation between the LaSalle future climate risk index and population change in the top 45 US metro areas between December 2023 and December 2028 based on Moody’s forecast as of February 2024.
9 Source: LaSalle analysis of data from NCREIF, FEMA.
10 Source: LaSalle analysis of data from NCREIF, FEMA.
11 Source: LaSalle analysis of MSCI data.
12 Source: The Dutch experience in flood management: A history of institutional learning
13 Source: The devastating storm of 1953, The History Press
14 Source: Dutch primary flood defenses, Nationaal Georegister
15 See Delta Programme 2024
16 See Osaka city – Flood disaster prevention map outline from the Osaka City Office of Emergency Management.
17 Estimates of maximum flood depth are based on historical records of natural disasters such as earthquakes, river floods and tsunamis that have occurred as reported by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism.
18 A superficial view of markets is that transactions are based on agreement on value. More accurately, buyers and sellers agree on a price, but their willingness to transact is based on disagreement on value. A seller, for example, may have a less bullish view on NOI growth prospects than a buyer. We expect the same disagreement on climate-related risk/reward trade-offs to be increasingly important.
This publication does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or any interests in any investment products advised by, or the advisory services of, LaSalle Investment Management (together with its global investment advisory affiliates, “LaSalle”). This publication has been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of recipients and under no circumstances is this publication on its own intended to be, or serve as, investment advice. The discussions set forth in this publication are intended for informational purposes only, do not constitute investment advice and are subject to correction, completion and amendment without notice. Further, nothing herein constitutes legal or tax advice. Prior to making any investment, an investor should consult with its own investment, accounting, legal and tax advisers to independently evaluate the risks, consequences and suitability of that investment.
LaSalle has taken reasonable care to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate and has been obtained from reliable sources. Any opinions, forecasts, projections or other statements that are made in this publication are forward-looking statements. Although LaSalle believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, LaSalle does not make any express or implied representation or warranty, and no responsibility is accepted with respect to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of the facts, opinions, estimates, forecasts, or other information set out in this publication or any further information, written or oral notice, or other document at any time supplied in connection with this publication. LaSalle does not undertake and is under no obligation to update or keep current the information or content contained in this publication for future events. LaSalle does not accept any liability in negligence or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by any party resulting from reliance on this publication and nothing contained herein shall be relied upon as a promise or guarantee regarding any future events or performance.
By accepting receipt of this publication, the recipient agrees not to distribute, offer or sell this publication or copies of it and agrees not to make use of the publication other than for its own general information purposes.
Copyright © LaSalle Investment Management 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means, whether graphically, electronically, mechanically or otherwise howsoever, including without limitation photocopying and recording on magnetic tape, or included in any information store and/or retrieval system without prior written permission of LaSalle Investment Management.
Report Summary: Physical climate risk data can be a powerful tool for managing asset and portfolio risk and returns. Learn what strategies leading firms are using to manage physical climate risks and navigate market challenges. The latest report from the Urban Land Institute and LaSalle Investment Management builds on their previous report, How to Choose, Use, and Better Understand Climate Risk Analytics, to describe how leading firms are leveraging physical climate-risk data in underwriting practices. With insight into asset- and portfolio-level risk becoming increasingly easy to obtain, new challenges lie in effective interpretation and integration of information into investment practices. Relying on research and interviews with industry leaders, this report provides a nuanced exploration of this emergent issue.
Physical Climate Risks and Underwriting Practices in Assets and Portfolios is structured into three sections, each addressing different aspects of the industry’s response to climate-risk data:
Section 1. Explore the current state of the industry, finding that:
• Leading firms actively coach their teams on physical risk.
• Regulatory trends affect, but do not motivate physical risk assessment.
• Different geographies approach physical with their own level of urgency.
• Investment managers tend to focus on fund risk, capital providers on portfolio risk.
• Tools to understand and price physical risk are still in a nascent stage of development.
Section 2. Examines the application of climate data in decision making. Key findings include:
• Aggregate physical risk is a screening tool; individual hazard risk is actionable information.
• Climate value at risk remains opaque; the utility of the single number offers value but needs increased transparency.
• Atypical hazard risk (e.g., flood in a desert) merits increased attention.
• External consultants can frequently fill skill gaps, especially for firms with less in-house expertise.
• While no predominant timeframe or Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) emerged as industry standard, the 2030 and 2050 benchmarks were the most commonly referenced time horizon.
Section 3. Assess the impact of physical climate risk on acquisition, underwriting, and disposition practices; finding that:
• Leading firms start with a top-down assessment of physical risk.
• Market concentration of physical risk is analogous to other concentration risks—a nuanced analysis is required.
• Capital expenditure for resilience projections is a key forecast but rife with uncertainty.
• Local-market climate mitigation measures are important to understand but difficult to forecast.
• Exit cap rate discount for estimated physical risk is an increasingly commonly used tool, frequently 25 to 50 basis points.
• Firms infrequently disclose physical risk but the market needs increased transparency.
Important Notice and Disclaimer
This publication does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or any interests in any investment products advised by, or the advisory services of, LaSalle Investment Management (together with its global investment advisory affiliates, “LaSalle”). This publication has been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of recipients and under no circumstances is this publication on its own intended to be, or serve as, investment advice. The discussions set forth in this publication are intended for informational purposes only, do not constitute investment advice and are subject to correction, completion and amendment without notice. Further, nothing herein constitutes legal or tax advice. Prior to making any investment, an investor should consult with its own investment, accounting, legal and tax advisers to independently evaluate the risks, consequences and suitability of that investment.
LaSalle has taken reasonable care to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate and has been obtained from reliable sources. Any opinions, forecasts, projections or other statements that are made in this publication are forward-looking statements. Although LaSalle believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, LaSalle does not make any express or implied representation or warranty, and no responsibility is accepted with respect to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of the facts, opinions, estimates, forecasts, or other information set out in this publication or any further information, written or oral notice, or other document at any time supplied in connection with this publication. LaSalle does not undertake and is under no obligation to update or keep current the information or content contained in this publication for future events. LaSalle does not accept any liability in negligence or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by any party resulting from reliance on this publication and nothing contained herein shall be relied upon as a promise or guarantee regarding any future events or performance.
By accepting receipt of this publication, the recipient agrees not to distribute, offer or sell this publication or copies of it and agrees not to make use of the publication other than for its own general information purposes.
Copyright © LaSalle Investment Management 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means, whether graphically, electronically, mechanically or otherwise howsoever, including without limitation photocopying and recording on magnetic tape, or included in any information store and/or retrieval system without prior written permission of LaSalle Investment Management.
London (March 11, 2024) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, has appointed Bouygues Rénovation Privée (“Bouygues”) as the main contractor for the redevelopment of Bergère, a landmark office-led, highly-amenitized workspace project in Paris.
Situated in the 9th Arrondissement, Bergère is in a prime location in the heart of Paris, surrounded by a thriving cluster of companies from across technology, fashion, and financial and professional services. It forms part of a vibrant urban environment with a high concentration of restaurants, bars, shops, department stores, and cultural and leisure facilities. Positioned just 150 metres from the Grands Boulevards metro station, Bergère also benefits from convenient transport links and access to three of Paris’s largest transportation hubs: Gare du Nord, Saint Lazare and Chatelet – Les Halles. The renovated building will have a floor area of approximately 26,850 square meters and was redesigned by the leading French architectural firm PCA-Stream.
Scheduled for completion in Q1 2026, the redevelopment of Bergère will incorporate industry-leading sustainability practices. This will involve a sensitive restoration of the building’s architectural heritage while upgrading the technical equipment to meet operational Net Zero Carbon goals. The project will prioritise the reuse of materials to minimise the projected embodied carbon associated, and the building is targeting a BREEAM Excellent certification, with a 50% reduction in operational CO2e and a 20% reduction in embodied CO2e compared with the benchmark for Parisian office renovations.
The redevelopment will also look to meet future tenant requirements and evolving work trends with high-quality amenities to promote in-person interaction and facilitate a hybrid working, including an auditorium, business centre, bars and restaurants, event spaces and a media broadcast studio.
Marc Fauchille, Head of Development and Repurposing, Europe, LaSalle Investment Management, commented: “We are excited to work together with the experience and expertise at Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France on Bergère, to create an innovative and truly revolutionary workspace in the heart of Paris. Bergère is set to be a prime office-led development in Paris, situated in a highly sought-after location in one of the strongest European markets. The project is already attracting a high level of tenant interest given its quality, location and sustainability credentials.”
Thomas Rousseau, Managing Director of Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France Rénovation Privée, adds: “We are very proud to have been selected by LaSalle Investment Management for this Parisian prime office restructuring operation, which is also listed as a Historic Monument. The teams were particularly driven by the ambition of the project, the technical complexity as well as the challenges in terms of uses and the environment. This success is the result of collective work. Our teams are already mobilized to highlight their expertise and know-how in heritage restoration, our core business. This building is a real showcase for our company in terms of decarbonization, exemplarity and innovation. A big thank you to LaSalle Investment Management and its partners for trusting us with the realization of this exceptional project.
LaSalle acquired Bergère, on behalf of Encore+, its flagship open-ended pan-European fund, in May 2020 from BNP Paribas in a sale-and-leaseback transaction.
Ends
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately US $90 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q4 2024. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
Marketing Disclaimer: This information is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for information purposes only and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results. Please refer to the offering documents Encore+ for detailed information on the risks, reward and performance information of the Fund.
London (February 26, 2024) – LaSalle has been recognised as Real Estate Firm of the Year (ESG) at the New Private Markets Awards 2023 in recognition of the steps taken last year to embed sustainability across its operations in Europe.
LaSalle completed net zero carbon audits for 177 properties in the UK and continental Europe, created a dedicated NZC implementation team, and introduced sustainability-related performance targets for all investment-related employees, with 119 having already undertaken bespoke training.
Alex Edds, Head of Sustainability, Europe at LaSalle commented:
“This award recognises the significant progress we’ve made in delivering on our sustainability strategy in Europe, and in particular our net zero carbon programme. We remain committed to improving and delivering upon ours and our clients’ sustainability goals in ways that also drive investment performance.”
Read more about this year’s New Private Market Awards on the NPM website (subscription required): New Private Markets Awards 2023: ESG in fund management winners.
ENDS
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately US $89 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q3 2023. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
There is no doubt that commercial real estate is entering a period of transition, one in which sustainability will be as important as commercial performance.
The sustainability credentials of assets and funds will be subject to greater scrutiny by regulators, investors and occupiers. Those slow off the mark will find it difficult to protect and create value.
At LaSalle, delivering investment performance today is all about ensuring a better tomorrow for our stakeholders. We undertake our responsibility to the planet, our clients and our people with the highest degree of sincerity and integrity. The thematic lens adopted by our Global Management Committee to drive this is centred around the phrase “People, Planet,
Performance.” Our view is that delivery of investment performance and a sustainable future for our stakeholders are not mutually exclusive when acting as a steward and fiduciary of investment capital.
London (January 25, 2024) LaSalle Investment Management, the global real estate investment manager acting on behalf of Malaysian investor Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), has selected Multiplex Construction Europe Limited (Multiplex) as the main contractor for the construction of One Exchange Square, a state-of-the-art 447,000 square foot office development at Broadgate Campus in the City of London. M3 Consulting are acting as the Development Manager for the project.
Designed by Fletcher Priest Architects, the 13-story scheme to be delivered by Multiplex will comprise 430,000 square feet of premium workspace and 17,000 square feet of retail, fronting both Bishopsgate and the newly re-landscaped park at Exchange Square. With 13 upper floors and floorplates averaging 40,000 square feet, the building features landscaped terraces on every floor, totalling 33,000 square feet across the building. In addition to boasting a striking feature reception and 8,000 square feet amenity lounge, One Exchange Square benefits from outstanding transport connections and a diverse array of amenities, conveniently situated just a one-minute walk from Liverpool Street Station and surrounded by vibrant locations such as Broadgate Campus, Spitalfields, Shoreditch and the City of London.
Scheduled for completion in Q1 2026. One Exchange Square is envisioned as an office of the future, designed to meet tenants’ high sustainability and wellness demands. It is targeting exemplary environmental credentials, including a BREEAM Outstanding rating, NABERS 5* and Well Platinum. By retaining 90% of the existing structure, the asset will have 50% lower embodied carbon than a typical new build office of comparable size, saving approximately 7,600 tonnes of CO2e compared to the GLA 2030 target. The project is 100% electric, using intelligent façade design and mechanical services twinned with building management systems to manage operational energy use.
Gary Moore, Head of International Accounts, Europe, LaSalle Investment Management commented: “Once completed, One Exchange Square will be a truly landmark office development in London. It will boast top-notch environmental performance ratings in a conveniently central location, and is poised to be highly sought after for years to come. We are excited to work with Multiplex on its development and construction, integrating state-of-the-art design and sustainability features to cater to the needs of its future tenants.”
Callum Tuckett, Managing Director at Multiplex, said: “We are incredibly proud to have been selected by LaSalle and PNB to transform this key building in the Broadgate campus and the City of London. We look forward to working with our development partners and all the professional teams to deliver a contemporary and highly sustainable building that will have a positive impact not just on its occupiers but on the surrounding areas of Bishopsgate and Exchange Square.”
Trowers & Hamlins LLP advised on property, planning, procurement and construction legals. The construction team was led by partner James Huckstep and assisted by Nicola Conway and Natasha Kaulsay.
JLL and Cushman and Wakefield are advising on the repositioning and leasing of the project.
ENDS
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately US $89 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q3 2023. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
CHICAGO, LONDON, SINGAPORE (January 15, 2024) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, has recorded strong sustainability performance results in two industry-recognized global Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) benchmarks for asset managers.
In the 2023 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (“GRESB”), 20 of the firm’s funds and separate accounts, domiciled across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region, have been recognized for their ESG standards. Across the 20 submissions, seven achieved a 5-star rating, up from four in 2022, nine achieved a 4-star rating, and four achieved a 3-star rating. LaSalle China Logistics Venture was ranked 1st place within its sector peer group, and the firm’s average score increased by nearly three points from 82.22 in 2022 to 85.15 in 2023.
LaSalle commingled products recognised within the 2023 GRESB include:
In addition, LaSalle has received updated scores for the 2023 ‘Principles for Responsible Investment’ (“PRI”) Assessment Report, securing four stars in the categories pertaining to Policy Governance and Strategy, Direct – Listed Equity – Active Fundamental, and Confidence Building Measures, as well as achieving three stars for Direct Real Estate.
LaSalle PRI Assessment Report results include:
Julie Manning, Global Head of Climate and Carbon at LaSalle, commented: “LaSalle is committed to improving and delivering upon our clients’ ESG goals in ways that also drive investment performance, and these impressive results reflect this effort. Sustainability factors are key to our corporate strategy in addition to being a focus throughout our investment process. In the year ahead, we will continue to embed sustainability further into each function across our operations and maintain our position as a leader in the industry.”
About GRESB
GRESB is an industry-driven organization transforming the way capital markets assess the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real asset investments. More than 900 property companies and funds, jointly representing more than USD 3.6 trillion in assets under management, participated in the 2018 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. The Infrastructure Assessment covered 75 funds and 280 assets, and 25 portfolios completed the Debt Assessment. GRESB data and analytical tools are used by more than 75 institutional and retail investors, including pension funds and insurance companies, collectively representing over USD 18 trillion in institutional capital, to engage with investment managers to enhance and protect shareholder value. Greater transparency on ESG issues has become the norm, with GRESB widely recognized as the global ESG benchmark for real assets. For more information about GRESB and its ESG benchmarking and reporting for real estate, please visit https://gresb.com/gresb-real-estate-assessment/.
About the PRI
The PRI is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. It works to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. The PRI encourages investors to use responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks, but does not operate for its own profit; it engages with global policymakers but is not associated with any government; it is supported by, but not part of, the United Nations. For more information about UN PRI and its ESG benchmarking and reporting for real estate, please visit https://www.unpri.org/
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $89 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments as of Q3 2023. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments.
For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
NOTE: This information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
London (November 7, 2023) – Related Argent and joint venture partner Invesco Real Estate have appointed the main contractor and secured the debt finance for the development of Brent Cross Town’s second Build-to-Rent (BtR) building, enabling construction of 286 new homes. Galliford Try will deliver the homes and over 17,000 square feet of amenity and retail space, while the £97 million debt financing is provided by LaSalle Investment Management, further building on the significant momentum at the £8 billion net zero park town in London.
The debt financing takes the form of a Green Loan, lending dedicated to sustainable projects, which is linked to the strong environmental credentials of the building. The building is designed to be supplied with very low carbon heating and cooling from the development’s electric district heating and cooling network, which is being delivered in partnership with Vattenfall. In addition, the building aims to deliver a measurable net gain in biodiversity and to minimise construction waste and embodied carbon through efficient off-site manufacturing. LaSalle Debt Investments’ green loan structures are compliant with the Loan Market Association’s green loan framework. The overall Brent Cross Town development is committed to reaching net zero by 2030.
The announcement demonstrates the significant progress being made at Brent Cross Town. Six buildings are now underway, the first of which will be completed from the end of 2024. In total, over 930 homes, including affordable, market sale and BtR homes are on-site along with 662 student rooms in partnership with Fusion Students. Sheffield Hallam University will open its first satellite campus outside of Yorkshire at Brent Cross Town, and a joint venture between Audley Group and Senior Living Investment Partners (Octopus Real Estate and Pension Investment Corporation) will create a retirement village with around 150 homes.
Brent Cross Town is being delivered in partnership between Related Argent and Barnet Council and will create a total of 6,700 new homes, 3 million square feet of offices, a high street and schools surrounded by 50 acres of parks and playing fields including the new 4.5-acre Claremont Park which was completed last year. The new town will benefit from Brent Cross West station, which will be the first major new mainline station in London in more than a decade when it opens later this year, connecting with King’s Cross St Pancras in as little as 12 minutes.
The new contractor appointment and financing is part of the joint venture between Related Argent and Invesco Real Estate, the global real estate investment manager, formed at the end of 2022 to deliver £600 million of Gross Development Value, including over 800 homes as well as retail by 2025.
Galliford Try, one of the UK’s leading construction groups, is already delivering the first BtR building at Brent Cross Town. Its appointment by the Related Argent and Invesco Real Estate joint venture to deliver the second BtR building comprising 286 homes, a mix of market and discount market rent homes, will bring the total number of BtR homes under construction at Brent Cross Town to 535.
All will be developed and managed by Related Argent, which has just opened a brand-new premium rental development, Author King’s Cross on the King’s Cross estate. Related Argent’s BtR portfolio draws on the established record of Related Companies, which has over 71,000 homes across the United States. Known for its outstanding customer service, Related Companies has decades of proven experience in the sector.
The 286 new homes are designed by Allies & Morrison, with interiors by Conran and Partners, and range from studio to three-bedroom apartments, with block amenities shared with the first BtR building at Brent Cross Town, including a large central lobby with 24-hour concierge, wellness hub, including a gym, fitness studios, 25 meter pool and sauna, work from home spaces, private dining spaces, roof top terraces, podium gardens, guest suites and a cinema.
Tom Goodall, Managing Director of Related Argent, said: “There is strong momentum behind our BtR portfolio with our first rental homes now completed at Author King’s Cross and over 1,000 BtR homes under construction. Our joint venture with Invesco Real Estate at Brent Cross Town and the financing from LaSalle Investment Management is helping meet an increasing gap in the market and addressing the city’s growing demand for high-quality rental properties in vibrant places.”
John German, Managing Director, Residential Investments at Invesco Real Estate, said: “When Invesco and Related Argent closed our Joint Venture in October 2022, we only had one build contract and one loan in place. 12 months later, we now have secured all four build contracts and the necessary loan facilities to enable the project to move forward as we had planned. We are delighted that the Project Team achieved this key milestone which now allows the project to move forward into the delivery stage to enable these assets to be delivered into our investor’s existing BtR Portfolio of just under 1,100 units.”
Robert Fay, Director, Debt Investments at LaSalle Investment Management added: “We are very pleased to work with Related Argent and Invesco Real Estate to provide the debt financing for this project, which brings together market leaders in urban regeneration and best-in-class accommodation in a great location with strong transport links to Central London. The living sector is one of LaSalle’s highest convictions across our European lending and equity strategies. This financing is LaSalle’s 26th development loan made since 2012 and builds on our development lending track record, providing flexible, sustainable loans to high-quality sponsors.”
Bill Hocking, Chief Executive of Galliford Try, said: “We are delighted to be working once again with Related Argent on one of the most significant Build to Rent schemes in London. Our business has a strong track record in producing high-quality residential developments with the sector remaining a key focus for our Building business within our Sustainable Growth Strategy.”
Councillor Ross Houston, Deputy Leader of Barnet Council and Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, said: “Barnet’s new park town has been carefully designed to meet the needs of our residents now and in the future with a range of options including social housing, private sale homes, student accommodation and homes built to rent. I welcome the progress being made on Brent Cross Town’s first new homes that are being built specifically with Barnet renters in mind.”
The BtR offering at Brent Cross Town forms a major part of Related Argent’s portfolio of over 3,000 rental homes alongside King’s Cross and Tottenham Hale. The first residents moved into its first BtR development, Author King’s Cross, in October 2023. Related Argent has plans to expand its rental portfolio beyond the 3,000 homes.
Ends
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $78 billion of assets in private and public real estate property and debt investments as of Q1 2023. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
About LaSalle Debt Investments
LaSalle Debt Investments is part of LaSalle’s growing $10bn Debt & Value-Add Strategies platform in Europe and invests in a diverse range of real estate credit products – spanning senior loans, whole loans, mezzanine, development finance, corporate finance, NAV facilities and preferred equity – with significant experience across various sectors, geographies, deal sizes and capital structures. Since launching the business line in 2010, LaSalle has been one of Europe’s most active alternative real estate debt providers with a long track record of lending to best-in-class sponsors.
About Related Argent
In 2015, Argent and Related joined forces to create an unrivalled UK property business and urban regeneration specialist. The company brings together the expertise and track record of Argent – the developer behind some of Britain’s most successful mixed-use places, and Related – one of the most innovative and prolific real estate companies in the US. The combined experience delivering ground-breaking projects such as King’s Cross in London, Hudson Yards and Deutsche Bank Center in New York, Brindleyplace in Birmingham, The Square in West Palm Beach, Florida and The Grand LA in Los Angeles is brought to bear on each of the projects.
Related Argent operates across a range of property sectors including residential, workspace, education, shopping, hospitality and leisure. Its work goes beyond bricks and mortar development. It also specialises in the services, facilities and experiences that are so important to urban life – art, culture, events, schools, skills & training programmes and renewable energy networks.
Related Argent is one of the UK’s leading developer-owner-operators and, since its inception eight years ago, has rapidly grown a £9Bn+, 12m sq ft mixed-use development pipeline. This includes major regeneration projects in London, at Brent Cross Town and Tottenham Hale, as well as a Build-to-Rent (BtR) scheme at King’s Cross, known as ‘Author King’s Cross’. It’s accessing global capital markets to deliver major new projects across the UK and is seeking to expand its BtR housing portfolio. On 1 May 2024, Argent will transfer all employees, projects and assets to Related Argent Limited.
Related Argent’s vision is to be a great city builder – for people, planet, and prosperity and its purpose is to improve urban life for all, everyday. This means developing for the long term – astutely, sustainably and with a sense of social purpose. Related Argent is delivering the places, homes, workspace, public space, arts, culture, events and services that our UK cities and town centres need. www.argentllp.co.uk
About Invesco Real Estate
Invesco Real Estate is a global leader in the real estate investment management business with USD 91.1 billion in real estate assets under management, 586 employees and 21 regional offices across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Invesco Real Estate has a 40-year investment history and has been actively investing across the risk-return spectrum, from core to opportunistic, in equity and debt real estate strategies, and in direct and listed real estate for its c.500 institutional client relationships during this time. In Europe, Invesco Real Estate has eight offices in London, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Luxembourg and Warsaw, and 191 employees. It manages 200 assets across 14 European countries and with assets under management of USD 18 billion. Source: Invesco Real Estate as at 31 March 2023.
About Galliford Try
Galliford Try is a trading name of Galliford Try Holdings plc, a leading UK construction group listed on the London Stock Exchange. Operating as Galliford Try and Morrison Construction, the group carries out building and infrastructure projects with clients in the public, private and regulated sectors across the UK.
About Brent Cross Town
Brent Cross Town is the neighbourhood at the heart of the Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration programme. It is a joint venture between Related Argent and Barnet Council to develop a large-scale mixed-use development including new homes, retail and office space, as well as improved schools and greenspaces in the area. Early work started on site in early 2020 and construction is also underway on the new Brent Cross West station which is due to open later this year. Building on the strengths of this diverse part of the city, Brent Cross Town will draw inspiration from the best of London’s long-established neighbourhoods with all their complexity and character.
At its heart, will be a focus on sport, play, health and well-being. The new neighbourhood will provide 6,700 homes, state-of-the-art workspace for over 25,000 people, and pedestrian friendly streets and squares with local shops and restaurants that will complement the offer at Brent Cross Shopping Centre. The community will be supported by first-class public transport infrastructure, a new and improved network of walking and cycle routes and a series of new parks and other amenities. www.brentcrosstown.co.uk @brentcrosstown
NOTE: This information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
The transition to a lower-carbon built environment is reshaping the definition of quality real estate. We can point to numerous anecdotal examples of green building features driving higher rents and values, as well as better overall performance. However, showing this rigorously and quantitively is challenging.
Various academics, real estate agencies and other researchers have attempted to measure the difference between assets that possess and those that lack green features. They use a range of datasets that vary widely and have enjoyed varying degrees of success in drawing clear, convincing findings from their analysis.
So is there a green premium? Or a brown discount?
Price, value and performance differentials between assets that possess and those that lack certain sustainable credentials are often called one of the other. In our view, the difference between the green premiums and brown discounts is a matter of perspective and can vary with time, as given attributes transition from novel, to highly valued, to standard.
For simplicity’s sake, we think of them as a single concept that we call “the value of green.”
Our approach for this report is to examine the existing work on the topic and identify the most helpful and relevant analyses. This sits alongside our monitoring of outcomes within our own portfolio, a few examples of which we highlight as case studies.
We find that while the range of estimates are wide, and depend on a variety of methodological considerations, the studies consistently find a statistically significant financial impact of asset sustainability features on metrics such as achieved rent, capital value, leasing success and overall performance. We will continue to monitor the evolving evidence of these differentials, both in the broader literature and within our portfolios.
London (10 May 2023) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, today announces the provision of a fixed-rate green loan facility of £130m to finance Greystar’s acquisition and development of a 770-bed student housing asset in Wembley Park, London.
The loan was provided through LaSalle Debt Investments – one of Europe’s leading alternative real estate lending platforms, established in 2010.
The project is situated within the highly sought-after Wembley regeneration area, an established neighbourhood benefiting from diverse local amenities and facilities. The project benefits from excellent transportation links and is a five-minute walk to Wembley Park station, providing easy access to Central London. It is also well connected to a range of London’s leading universities, such as King’s College London and the London School of Economics.
The green loan will partially fund the construction of the 770-bed asset which is scheduled to complete in the summer of 2025. The development will comprise 20 storeys with 12,000 sq ft of amenities, including a co-working space, external courtyards and gardens, a gym and bike storage. The development has been designed with state-of-the-art sustainability credentials in mind, aiming to achieve a BREEAM rating of “Excellent” and targeting a ‘Two Star’ Fitwell accreditation.
LaSalle Debt Investments credit strategies include senior loans, whole loans, mezzanine, and development finance. It forms part of LaSalle’s pan-European Debt & Value-Add Strategies platform, which provides debt and equity capital solutions across European markets and sectors.
Ben Mowbray, Senior Director – Investment, Greystar, said: “LaSalle’s green loan facility will help us deliver a substantial, but most importantly sustainable student accommodation asset in Wembley. We are committed to ensuring our assets provide a home away from home for students in a time of unprecedented demand without compromising the environment.”
Robert Fay, Director, Debt Investments, LaSalle, said: “We look forward to helping Greystar deliver a best-in-class student product with strong sustainability credentials. This loan represents LaSalle’s fourteenth loan facility secured against student accommodation, a sector we have strong conviction in across our wider European business.”
Fiammetta Granchi, Vice President, Debt Investments, LaSalle, added: “This facility with Greystar is fixed rate and does not require syndication, providing enhanced stability to the borrower. The loan was structured as a green loan, compliant with the Loan Market Association’s green loan framework and Green Loan Principles. As the drive towards superior environmental performance accelerates, we are committed to supporting our borrowers to deliver high-quality, sustainable accommodation.”
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $79 billion of assets in private and public real estate property and debt investments as of Q3 2022. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
About LaSalle Debt Investments
LaSalle Debt Investments is part of LaSalle’s growing $10bn Debt & Value-Add Strategies platform in Europe and invests in a diverse range of real estate credit products – spanning senior loans, whole loans, mezzanine, development finance, corporate finance, NAV facilities and preferred equity – with significant experience across various sectors, geographies, deal sizes and capital structures. Since launching the business line in 2010, LaSalle has been one of Europe’s most active alternative real estate debt providers with a long track record of lending to best-in-class sponsors.
About Greystar
Greystar is a leading, fully integrated global real estate company offering expertise in property management, investment management, development, and construction services in institutional-quality rental housing, logistics, and life sciences sectors. Headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, Greystar manages and operates more than $250 billion of real estate in 234 markets globally with offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Greystar is the largest operator of apartments in the United States, manages more than 817,000 units/beds globally, and has a robust institutional investment management platform comprised of more than $69 billion of assets under management, including over $29 billion of development assets. Greystar was founded by Bob Faith in 1993 to become a provider of world-class service in the rental residential real estate business. To learn more, visit www.greystar.com.
NOTE: This information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
Brian Klinksiek’s article appears in Issue 12 of Summit, the official publication of AFIRE, the association for international real estate investors focused on commercial property in the United States.
Even as the US has exported trends that have transformed global property markets, several key trends originating in Europe are likely to shape property in the US and globally in the years ahead.
The opportunity to take ideas and best practices from one part of the world and implement them in another is, alongside diversification benefits, one of the great advantages of investing real estate capital across borders. Cyclical and secular themes tend to go global, albeit with leads and lags. Having a global perspective can give an investor an early-mover advantage over other players.
Historically, a common (but not exclusive) pattern has been for concepts to debut in US before emerging elsewhere. This was mirrored in my own career trajectory, which was shaped by the export of American business models. I moved from Chicago to London in 2009, and later to Hong Kong, to help my colleagues implement strategies in sectors that were established in the US but had been nascent elsewhere, such as multifamily apartments and self-storage. LaSalle has long tracked these differences in sector institutionalization and maturity on its “Going Mainstream” framework.
Chicago (April 19, 2023) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”) announced it has earned BREEAM certifications for 26 of its US properties. Seventeen industrial and 9 retail properties totaling more than 10 million square feet earned certifications, further highlighting LaSalle’s commitment to achieving sustainability goals across its portfolio.
BREEAM is a leading global sustainability assessment platform developed by BRE, a 100-year-old building science center developing science-led solutions to built environment challenges. BREEAM stands out among sustainability assessments given its uniquely holistic approach to evaluation — which goes beyond environmental factors, considering sustainable attributes such as resilience and health and well-being.
Elena Alschuler, LaSalle Head of Americas Sustainability, said: “To meet our net zero carbon goals, and ensure we’re on track to construct a portfolio that will stand the test of time and continue to be attractive to buyers and tenants, implementing sustainability best practices across a variety of assets will continue to be critical. We’re very proud to have achieved BREEAM certifications on 26 properties, and look forward to growing that number in the future.”
Added Breana Wheeler, US Director of Operations at BRE: “As the threat of climate risks poses an ever-increasing risk for the commercial real estate sector — and vice versa — we are thrilled to work with an industry leader like LaSalle to help set a standard for achieving meaningful sustainability goals. With over two dozen BREEAM-certified properties, LaSalle continues to demonstrate a strategic, portfolio-wide approach to meet the rising industry demand for improved ESG performance that aligns perfectly with BREEAM’s science-driven methodology, and we look forward to a continued partnership focused on thoughtful sustainable growth across the U.S. and beyond.”
The 26 BREEAM certifications add to LaSalle’s continued recognition by credible third-party sources, including the recent WELL Health-Safety certification of more than 190 properties in North America and Asia Pacific, and LEED certifications for several of its US and Canadian properties. To find out more about LaSalle’s sustainability efforts, read LaSalle’s recently published Sustainability in Focus.
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $82 billion of assets in private and public real estate property and debt investments as of Q2 2022. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit lasalle.com,or LinkedIn.
Forward looking statement
The information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
LONDON (11 April 2023) – LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, today announces that LaSalle Debt Investments, one of Europe’s largest alternative real estate lending platforms, has expanded its senior-secured debt strategies to include a dedicated sustainable lending focus. In the last year, the platform has provided over €350 million of green loans across Europe.
LaSalle Debt Investments has grown its capacity to support borrowers in retrofitting existing assets to improve their energy performance and fund the construction of the next generation of energy-efficient buildings across the UK and continental Europe.
Recent green loan activity includes a £148m senior facility to support the construction of a PBSA scheme in central London, a £115m development facility to support a multi-asset regional UK PBSA portfolio, and a €40m mezzanine facility to support the retrofit of a Berlin office asset.
LaSalle was recently recognised as ‘ESG Firm of the Year’ in the 2022 PERE Awards, acknowledging the combination of strategic hires, initiatives and deals that embed sustainability as a critical pillar of the firm’s long-term corporate strategy and overall investment philosophy.
Richard Craddock, Managing Director, leading LaSalle’s senior-secured debt strategies, said: “As the drive towards Net Zero Carbon accelerates, we continue to support our European borrowers to deliver high-quality, sustainable accommodation across sectors. Demand for loans to finance green refurbishments and the construction of energy-efficient developments will likely increase as the need to decarbonise gathers further momentum. By adding a dedicated green loan focus to our existing senior-secured strategies, LaSalle is able to provide a crucial source of capital to help reduce European real estate’s carbon footprint.”
LaSalle’s green loan structures are compliant with the Loan Market Association’s green loan framework.
LaSalle Debt Investments has over €1.5bn lending capacity in Europe across its credit strategies, which include senior loans, whole loans, mezzanine, and development finance. It forms part of LaSalle’s pan-European Debt & Value-Add Strategies division, which provides debt and equity capital solutions across European markets and sectors.
About LaSalle Investment Management | Investing Today. For Tomorrow.
LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. On a global basis, LaSalle manages approximately $79 billion of assets in private and public real estate property and debt investments as of Q3 2022. LaSalle’s diverse client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments and private individuals from across the globe. LaSalle sponsors a complete range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts, open- and closed-end funds, public securities and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit www.lasalle.com, and LinkedIn.
NOTE: This information discussed above is based on the market analysis and expectations of LaSalle and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding LaSalle funds or any issuer or security in particular. The information presented herein is for illustrative and educational purposes and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made to certain qualified investors by means of a private placement memorandum or applicable offering document and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Past performance is not indicative of future results, nor should any statements herein be construed as a prediction or guarantee of future results.
About LaSalle Debt Investments
LaSalle Debt Investments is part of LaSalle’s growing $10bn Debt & Value-Add Strategies platform in Europe and invests in a diverse range of real estate credit products – spanning senior loans, whole loans, mezzanine, development finance, corporate finance, NAV facilities and preferred equity – with significant experience across various sectors, geographies, deal sizes and capital structures. Since launching the business line in 2010, LaSalle has been one of Europe’s most active alternative real estate debt providers with a long track record of lending to best-in-class sponsors.
