The UK housing sector is at a turning point.
Climate change, rapid demographic shifts, and technological disruption are transforming the built environment and placing immense pressure on how we design, retrofit, and invest in housing (Bencardino & Nesticò, 2017; Blaszke et al., 2024). Nearly 29 million homes must adopt low-carbon heating systems to meet the UK’s Net Zero 2050 targets (CCC, 2019), with over £250 billion in investment needed — a staggering figure that demands smarter, longer-term planning (RICS, 2024).
Yet despite these pressures, we’re still using outdated tools to assess the value of our homes. Traditional valuation methods fail to capture what truly makes a home valuable in the 21st century — and that’s a problem we can no longer afford to ignore.
What’s the Problem with Current Valuation?
Most housing in the UK is still valued based on market comparables and traditional financial indicators, such as square footage and recent sales of similar properties. While these metrics offer short-term market relevance, they miss critical long-term factors like:
- Energy performance
- Climate resilience
- Social adaptability
- Operational efficiency
- Environmental and social governance (ESG) performance
The RICS Valuation – Global Standards (2025) states that sustainability should only influence value when supported by market evidence — a cautious approach that has led to minimal change in residential valuations (RICS, 2024a). Even when sustainable features are present (like solar panels or heat pumps), they are rarely monetised unless explicitly reflected in buyer behaviour (Sayce et al., 2022).
This results in undervalued green, resilient, and socially beneficial housing, and overvalued properties that may carry long-term climate or social risk.
Why It Matters: The Policy & Investment Disconnect?
This disconnect has real consequences.
Valuation drives everything from investment and lending decisions to public funding allocations, development approvals, and housing strategies. When valuations ignore long-term risks and sustainability benefits, we:
- Misguide investors and policymakers
- Undervalue retrofit and resilience efforts
- Delay progress on Net Zero and social equity
- Fail to internalise externalities like carbon, flood risk, or social displacement
Meanwhile, ESG benchmarks are rapidly shaping financial instruments like green mortgages and sustainability-linked loans, as well as government priorities via Homes England funding and local planning requirements.
As Sayce et al. (2022) and Hossain (2023) argue, continued reliance on conventional valuation distorts market signals, undercutting efforts to mainstream sustainability and failing to future-proof housing assets.
What This Research Aims to Do?
My doctoral research at Liverpool John Moores University, funded by the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, seeks to address this growing gap by developing a transparent and replicable Multi-Criteria Valuation Model (MCVM).
This model aims to assess the long-term value of housing by integrating:
- Adaptability
- Resilience to climate and social stressors
- Sustainability and ESG performance
- Long-term financial risk
By combining these dimensions into a decision-support tool, the MCVM will support more accurate, policy-aligned housing valuation — guiding investment, planning, and development decisions that reflect real, enduring value.
In the long run, this framework could help correct market failures by internalising hidden costs and risks — and ensuring the homes we build today are still valuable, safe, and liveable tomorrow.
Let’s Rethink What We Mean by “Value”?
This blog is part of my commitment to sharing research-in-progress, engaging with practitioners, and opening up dialogue about the future of housing value.
If you’re involved in housing policy, valuation, sustainability, ESG, or development, I invite you to follow along, share your perspective, and help shape a model that reflects the UK’s housing future — not its past.
Feel free to connect with me or visit the [Research] section to learn more.
Let’s make housing valuation work for the world we’re building — not the one we’re leaving behind.
Shanika Amaradivakara 
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