Examining the social value of healthy placemaking in real estate asset portfolio management

The paper reports findings from a real estate study examining asset management decision-making outcomes for urban population health and wellbeing in a five-year programme funded by the United Kingdom Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP). We find that despite an industry appetite for demonstrating how portfolio strategies promote sustainable urban environments that produce resilient risk-adjusted returns on investment, there is a paucity of health and wellbeing data to inform portfolio management models. Evidence of responsible Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) performance has become seen as a commercial priority but environmental sustainability has taken precedence in investor reporting due to the superior availability of carbon data. Focusing on two large investment management funds with extensive UK urban asset portfolios, we take on the challenge of testing how monetised health and wellbeing value generated by urban redevelopment can inform asset management healthy urban placemaking aligned with investor financial returns aspirations. We conclude that In the context of the contemporary financialization of property and assetization of urban space, urban land and property repurposing and upgrading presents an opportunity to create social value in operational models for wealth creation.