Flood Risk Assessments

In today's real estate market, flood risk has become a critical factor in transactional due diligence, extending beyond traditional contaminated land and environmental assessments. Investors, lenders, and asset managers face rapidly increasing exposure to physical climate risks, which can significantly impact asset valuation, inflate insurance premiums, and delay critical deal timelines. Proactive investors are now consistently demanding insights into climate risk to prepare for future scenarios.

This demand is driven by the formalisation of mandatory disclosures and risk management. Regulatory frameworks such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Sustainability Disclosures Standards (SDS), and EU Taxonomy now require transparent disclosure of physical climate risks. For larger businesses in the UK, this is a mandatory requirement. Over time, reporting requirements are expected to extend to smaller companies and additional sectors, making ESG transparency increasingly widespread.

Flood Risk Assessments deliver transaction-ready insights needed to identify high-risk assets early, avoid costly financial and operational surprises, and empower stakeholders to negotiate from a position of strength.

Antea Group UK is uniquely positioned in the transactional support space, as many larger consultants are focused on large infrastructure and planning projects, not the granular due diligence required by the investment community. Our focused, two-stage approach provides clear, action-oriented intelligence for critical decision-making:

Stage 1: Portfolio-Wide Flood Risk Screening

• Rapid Prioritisation: We conduct a semi-automated, tabular screening for entire real estate portfolios to quickly prioritise risk.
• Comprehensive Multi-Source Analysis: We assess all major sources of flooding: fluvial (rivers), tidal, surface water, groundwater and reservoirs. We can also assess sewers and canals which provides a more complete picture than standard checks.
• Weighted and Normalised Scoring: A quantitative scoring system is used, weighting the most impactful sources (fluvial and tidal) highest due to their greater potential for operational disruption and damage. Scores are then normalised to allow for fair cross-comparison of assets across the UK despite differences in underlying data sets.
• RAG Classification: Results are presented in an easy-to-digest Red, Amber, Green (RAG) risk prioritisation matrix, allowing you to instantly focus attention on high-risk (Red) assets.
• Deliverable: A summary report and a prioritisation matrix that allows clients to make informed decisions on whether to proceed with a deal, pull out, or negotiate a price chip.

Stage 2: Detailed Flood Risk Appraisals

• Targeted Deep Dive: For the high-risk (Red) sites identified in Stage 1, we conduct a detailed assessment that confirms the level of risk and outlines necessary mitigation actions.
• Investor-Ready Report: This stage culminates in a full report (approx. 20 pages) that incorporates additional third-party data, government reports, and specific hydraulic and climate change models to provide the nuts and bolts of the mitigation required.

• Pre-Transaction Flood Risk Screening 
• Portfolio-Wide Risk Prioritisation 
• Multi-Source Risk Analysis
• Climate Change Integration
• Weighted Scoring & Normalisation
• RAG Risk Classification 
• Stage 2 Detailed Flood Risk Appraisals 
• Alignment with TCFD, IFRS, and EU Taxonomy 
• Investor-Ready Reporting