The $571BILLION property bomb: Huge values to be wiped off homes by climate change

Climate change will wipe $571billion off the Australian property market by 2030 if we don’t reduce emissions, according to new research.

Floods, erosion, drought, bushfires and other extreme weather will cause untold damage to homes, infrastructure and commercial property, according to the Climate Council. 

The destruction will cause the value of affected homes to plunge by a total of $571billion by 2030, $611billion by 2050 and $770billion by 2100, the group’s new report states.

Storm-damaged unit blocks are seen at Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in June 2016

Pastoralist Lachlan Gall pulls a dead goat out of a dam on his property at Langawirra Station north of Broken Hill, New South Wales in August 2018 during a severe drought

Lightning strikes homes in Melbourne suburbs during a freak storm in December 2017

The research identifies ten local regions in each state where property will be most affected by climate change.

In New South Wales the Moree Plains will suffer from flooding and soil damage while in Victoria Swan Hill is most at risk of damage from flooding, the report states.

Queensland has the highest proportion of regions that will be affected with 52 per cent of local government areas at serious risk, the Gold Coast chief among them.  

As the damage costs increase, more homeowners will have to shell out higher insurance premiums, according to the report titled How Climate Change Is Damaging Australia’s Economy. 

The group identifies ten local regions in each state that will be the most affected by climate change

Houses affected by beach erosion are seen at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast on May 29, 2013

One in every 19 property owners faces the prospect of insurance premiums that will be effectively unaffordable by 2030, the report states. 

The report also says that the economy will be affected by climate changes in other ways than property damage.

Agricultural yields will be lower, pushing food prices up, researchers state.

Losses will reduce investment and employment, meaning agricultural heartlands such as the Murray-Darling Basin and the Western Australian wheat belt suffer enormously, they say.

Meanwhile, increasing temperatures will lead to more lost work days due to heat, the report says. 

These two effects could cost the economy a total of $4.2trillion by 2100, according to the research.

The report states that all of these direct macroeconomic shocks ‘could trigger serious financial instability in Australia and the region.’

It concludes that the next government must do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

‘Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have been rising for four years and we are not on track to meet our weak 2030 emissions reduction target,’ the report reads.

‘If the world followed Australia’s approach we would be on track for at least 3-4C of global warming, which would have catastrophic economic consequences.’

Climate change is a key issue in the federal election. Labor leader Bill Shorten has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party for not doing enough to combat it.

Mr Morrison has in return criticised Mr Shorten for not spelling out exactly how much his policies on climate change will cost the taxpayer. 

The Labor leader has responded by saying the future costs of climate change are much higher than any investment in renewable energy made now – and this report appears to back up his argument.

Queensland has the highest proportion of local government areas that will be affected with 52 per cent of regions at serious risk

Jonathan Weslake’s flood ravaged home is left in ruins after the levee broke inundating the centre of Lismore, New South Wales in April 2017

Girls walk through floodwaters in Lismore, New South Wales after the 2017 floods