A new report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has suggested that demand growth for ‘green buildings’ has slowed, while the real estate and construction sectors remain ‘stagnant’ in adopting sustainable practices.
RICS’ 2025 sustainability report explored sentiments from more than 3,500 professionals worldwide, and found that while awareness of sustainability in both real estate and construction remains strong, there are ‘clear signs that momentum is stalling’ in the market.
‘Fatigue and uncertainty’
“Transformation across the built environment is necessary if we are to meet the challenge of climate change,”commented Nicholas Maclean, acting president, RICS. “This important RICS research shows progress but also clear signs of fatigue and uncertainty.”
The report includes the findings of the latest 2025 RICS Sustainable Building Index (SBI), which found that the Middle East and Africa (MEA) recorded the highest growth in demand for sustainable buildings at +52, followed by the United Kingdom (+43), Europe (+39), Asia-Pacific (+27), and the Americas (+11).
Initial costs were identified as the main hurdle blocking sustainable investment, followed by lack of ROI evidence and lack of investor awareness or client demand.
Valuable insights
“The MEA region has emerged as a strong performer, with the report indicating demand growth outpacing all other regions studied,” Maclean added. “These developments offer valuable insights for global efforts in sustainability.
“Governments, industry and professional bodies must work together urgently to unlock investment, strengthen policy and scale up skills to deliver a truly sustainable future.”
Elsewhere, the report found that close to half (46%) of construction professionals are not measuring carbon emissions across their projects, up from 34% a year ago, while 30% cite insufficient knowledge and skills to reduce embodied carbon emissions.
More than 60% of respondents report carbon calculations and climate resilience assessments in fewer than half of their projects – or not at all – however a similar percentage (60%) agree that the protection of biodiversity and the natural environment is a ‘critical issue’ that needs to be addressed.
RICS has called for government policy measures to ‘define pathways for decarbonisation and resilience building, mandate carbon assessment reporting, drive investments in green buildings and scale biodiversity measures’. Read more here.
