Protecting value in at-risk developments: The case for property flood resilience (PFR)

Housebuilders are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, facing higher construction costs, tighter financing conditions and growing expectations around resilience and place quality. At the same time, surface water flood risk is becoming a more important consideration for housing delivery, particularly in areas where demand for new homes remains strongest.

While much of the flooding debate has focused on impacts on households and government, less attention has been paid to the commercial risks developers face when flooding occurs during construction and active sales periods. This report explores that evidence gap.

Drawing on realistic development scenarios across England, Public First modelled how flooding during construction can affect development economics and whether relatively low-cost property-level flood resilience (PFR) measures can help reduce these risks. This is meant to be illustrative rather than a formal impact assessment.

The analysis finds that modest resilience investments can generate positive commercial returns by reducing remediation costs, construction delays, sales disruption and impacts on buyer confidence. In our mid-point scenario, developers could save around £2.27 in avoided losses for every £1 invested in PFR measures. 

The findings suggest that investing in resilience during construction can help developers protect property value, reduce disruption, improve delivery certainty and better manage flood risk as pressures continue to grow. 

You can read the full report here or the two page summary here.