DUAL’s Climate Risk & Resilience team has launched two new products, designed to provide insurance to owners and investors to protect the value of their assets and unlock finance during the transition to a sustainable economy.
Both DUAL Energy Efficiency Retrofit (EER) insurance and DUAL Environmental Investment Protection (EIP) insurance have been launched by the firm.
The first product aims to highlight the role of insurance in unlocking investment and protecting asset values through many stages of a building’s life cycle as the real estate industry transitions to net zero.
DUAL EER is made to help provide energy performance certainty to asset owners, investors and contractors, undertaking the retrofitting of buildings.
The firm explained that it is designed to make retrofitting assets investable and facilitate external financing if required.
The product covers three key areas: certainty of energy reduction, asset performance, and any lost energy revenue creation. Its target audience is all real estate owners, social housing and public sector, commercial and industrial real estate investors, and lenders.
The second product aims to address the rise in awareness around the impact of environmental and biodiversity risks on real estate. Since reporting requirements are becoming increasingly important to owners and investors, environmental factors that affect an asset’s liquidity, investability and value.
DUAL EIP insurance aims to protect property values against environmental and biodiversity risks in property transactions, financing and during M&A activity. Focused on land and built assets where owners or investors are buying or selling, financing and/ or developing.
The product is designed to assure all stakeholders that their capital is not at risk if their assets’ environmental performance changes due to known, or future contamination risks and future legislation changes.
The products come ahead of the UK Real Estate infrastructure and investment Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds from 20th to 22nd May.
Simon McGinn, Chief Executive Officer, DUAL UK, commented, “Climate events continue to focus minds on the role insurance can play in building resilience. The development of two new products under the DUAL umbrella is a fantastic example of how MGAs can provide insurance for emerging and niche risks.
“Our highly experienced underwriters are acutely attuned to the needs of the market, and I am excited to see DUAL pushing boundaries in our range of products and building out our portfolio even further. I am delighted that our ability to write specialty business with these innovative products will inject new opportunities and help unlock growth for our clients in the real estate industry.”
Rob Best, Managing Director, Climate Risk & Resilience, DUAL UK, added, “As legislation and the need for decarbonisation place increasing demands on the property industry and pose threats to property values, the real estate industry is increasingly aware of the need to mitigate these challenges.
“My team and I have worked closely with the real estate industry to understand how insurance can assist in protecting property values and provide the reassurance to make transactions and projects fundable. We are able to help a range of real estate stakeholders from owners and investors to developers and lawyers, at various stages in a building’s life cycle.”
He continued, “The two new DUAL products recognise that providing the certainty to secure funding and protecting investment for projects is key to achieving net zero targets. We are very excited about the launch of our products and the opportunity to discuss them with a wide range of interested parties.
“We know that both the Energy Efficiency Retrofit and Environmental Investment Protection products will enable a range of stakeholders to respond effectively to the emerging risks and opportunities associated with the drive towards net zero.”
