Over three quarters (76%) of European institutional investors with stranded commercial real estate (CRE) assets – buildings experiencing reduced capital value, leasing or future liquidity due to poor energy performance – have seen their value decline by between 20% and 40% over the past three years.
According to new benchmarking research launched by re:sustain, two thirds of those surveyed (63%) said that 20-40% of their commercial real estate portfolio has poor energy consumption i.e. that which is materially above expected energy benchmarks for that asset type and location. Over half (57%) of those surveyed said that between 10% and 50% of their real estate assets were stranded, posing a huge problem for the sector.
At a country-specific level, investors in the Netherlands and France face the greatest stranded asset challenge, with those in Italy, Germany and Spain having lower numbers of poorly performing buildings in their portfolios.
The Netherlands has the highest levels of stranded assets – 53% said between 25% and 50% of buildings are stranded, with a further 20% citing 50-75% of buildings.
France has the second highest number of stranded assets - 47% of respondents said that between 25% - 50% of their assets are stranded, 13% said between 50-75% are stranded.
In the UK, 30% of respondents said between 25% and 50% of their assets were stranded with a further 14% describing 50-75% of buildings as stranded.
Respondents in Spain (90%) said between 5% and 25% of assets are stranded.
In Germany, 80% of respondents said between 5% and 25% of assets are stranded, and in Italy – 77% said between 5% and 25% of assets are stranded.
The research also highlighted the consequences for investors if they do not tackle energy efficiency across their portfolios, with 39% expecting the number of stranded assets to increase by 10-25% over the next five years, 29% expect to see an increase of between 5-10% and 19% predict an increase in stranded assets of between 25% and 50%.
“In practice, a huge share of the energy wasted in existing buildings can be removed through better operations, controls and data — often with little or no capex and minimal tenant disruption,” Katie Whipp, chief business officer at re:sustain, said.
“This is a fast, scalable lever for addressing stranded asset risk and protecting value without waiting for full refurb cycles. The technology exists which can tackle the problem by generating significant energy savings quickly and cost-effectively.
“ROI and sustainability are now the same problem. The buildings that are run most efficiently are the ones that will deliver stronger net operating income, lower risk and better ESG outcomes. We do not want to treat “commercial” and “sustainability” as separate tracks; the whole point is that operational performance is the bridge between them and sustainability must and can make commercial sense - if not outperformance.”
Research was conducted by Pureprofile in February 2026 with 200 respondents working for pension funds, insurance asset managers, asset managers and investment banks that invest in European commercial real estate assets who are actively involved in managing /running the commercial real estate portfolio of the organisation they work for.
The research was conducted in UK (50 respondents), Germany (30 respondents), France (30 respondents), Netherlands (30 respondents), Spain (30 respondents), and Italy (30 respondents) with a combined AUM of €296bn.
