The study explores the potential to fill a gap in health and wellbeing evidence for purposeful urban real estate asset management to make investment a powerful force for societal good. Part of a five-year programme investigating the root causes of unhealthy urban development funded by the United Kingdom Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP), the study pilots the use of a systems mapping approach to explore complex relationships between public health considerations and asset management decisions in urban production. Little is known about the contribution of population health and wellbeing to socially sustainable urban projects and the monetary value of the opportunity this presents to improve the urban environment for local communities. Providing evidence of the social value-added of proposed developments is increasingly considered essential to secure local community support and planning permissions, and to attract sustained inward flows of capital for deployment in future urban projects from investors with long-term investment horizons.

In locations with declining economic performance, buildings have been abandoned, leading to urban decay. The redevelopment and operation of brownfield assets recycles existing buildings, minimising embodied carbon emissions. It retains established urban spaces with which local communities identify, and regenerate places with a sense of security, economic opportunity, social interaction and quality of life.

Interviews with real estate upstream decision-makers in the study, find that local social needs and impact analysis is becoming a commercial priority for large-scale urban real estate development projects. Early indications suggest a strong real estate investment industry appetite and potential to include health as a vital component of sustainable real estate social value creation in asset management strategies.