2025 is a seminal year for multilateralism: it’s 80 years since the United Nations was founded and a decade since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement. It’s also halfway through the UN’s Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These anniversaries aren’t just symbolic, they’re a call to assess progress, recalibrate strategies, and recommit to multilateralism in a world facing increasingly complex challenges.
Halfway through the UN’s Decade of Action, real estate is playing its part in the sustainable transition, but more change is needed.
Progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals remains mixed
The SDGs are unprecedented in ambition and scope, aiming to address poverty, hunger, education, clean water, climate action, and sustainable economic growth by 2030. But progress has been uneven. The 2025 SDG Progress Report reveals that only 35% of targets are on track or making moderate headway. Nearly half are advancing too slowly, and 18% are regressing. The scale of the task is immense.
Infrastructure access has improved in many areas. By 2023, 92% of the global population had electricity, and internet usage had surged to 68% in 2024, from 40% in 2015, opening up new opportunities for education, employment, and civic participation.
Urbanisation is one of the defining trends of this century: over half of the global population lives in cities, a share that grows each year. SDG 11 calls for cities that are inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Yet delivering this goal is increasingly difficult in the face of high inflation, constrained public budgets, and rising construction costs. The result is a growing affordability crisis, an estimated 1.6 billion people lacking access to adequate housing, and only 19% of cities across 50 countries reporting strong civil society participation in urban planning, according to the UN. This limits the inclusivity and effectiveness of urban development, particularly for marginalised communities.
A shift in mindset may be required. One solution could be reframing housing as core infrastructure to unlock longer-term investment and encourage greater policy continuity. This would elevate its strategic importance, potentially placing it alongside transport and energy in national investment priorities, releasing longer-term capital, and delivering stronger economic and social outcomes.
Climate action must accelerate
2025 is also pivotal for climate action, marking a decade since the Paris Agreement and the midpoint of a critical window for reducing emissions. Countries are expected to submit updated national climate plans, known as NDCs 3.0, with targets for 2035. Yet, as of June, only 25 countries had done so. The pace of action must accelerate.
Cities sit at the heart of the climate challenge, as both major contributors to emissions and highly vulnerable to climate impacts. By 2040, over 2 billion urban residents could experience an additional temperature rise of at least 0.5 degrees Celsius. Around 36% of the global urban population may face annual average temperatures of 29 degrees or higher.
Adaptation is as important as mitigation. Cities need to protect infrastructure, reassure investors, and support communities. When entire urban areas commit to resilience strategies, it’s easier to attract investment into climate-proofed real estate, and developers and landowners are more likely to invest in resilient design or retrofit buildings.
The path forward demands more than ambition. It requires investment, policy innovation, and collaboration across sectors and borders. Multilateralism remains essential as a practical framework for solving challenges that no country can tackle alone. Real estate plays a critical role in this context. It’s not only the foundation of our homes and workplaces, but the physical infrastructure where decisions with global significance are shaped. Its contribution to economic growth and sustainable development is both substantial and essential.
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