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Sustainable leadership in Residential Real Estate

All property sectors have characteristics that set them apart from the wider industry. This is particularly true for residential real estate, with lease terms, asset compositions, and other material differences that do not easily fit within a standardized benchmarking framework. GRESB is adapting its Standard and assessment to better cater to the unique needs of specific sectors like residential.

Get started with the Residential Assessment Learn about getting started with GRESB

Tailored benchmarking for Residential Real Estate

GRESB is now tailor-made for residential entities, providing a better assessment based on your needs and material considerations. The output of the real estate assessment for residential entities will be a more useful, insightful benchmark that investors and participants can use in their investment, engagement, and decision-making processes.

Introducing a report for residential sector-specific criteria

GRESB has introduced a Residential Component for real estate participants whose portfolios consist of more than 75% residential assets by Gross Asset Value (GAV). Developed in response to long-standing industry feedback and guided by the Real Estate Standards Committee and the Foundation Roadmap, the Residential Component introduces a more tailored and actionable framework for assessing residential asset performance.

This targeted update includes:

  • The removal and restructuring of indicators with limited relevance to residential assets
  • Adjusted scoring weights to reflect actual performance drivers in the sector
  • New measures that capture critical aspects of residential asset design, operation, and resilience

Participants opting for the Residential Component complete it alongside the main Real Estate Assessment. They continue to receive the GRESB Benchmark Report and additionally receive a standalone Sector Insight: Residential report. The supplemental residential score may differ from the primary Real Estate Assessment score but does not impact the entity’s GRESB Score or ranking.

The introduction of the Residential Component reflects GRESB’s broader shift toward sector-specific insights, supporting managers and investors in building efficient, resilient, and high-performing residential portfolios.

GRESB Participants can benefit from:

More targeted and relevant insights

Entities with residential assets gain sharper, more actionable insights with new topics tailored specifically to what matters most in residential real estate

Increased focus on sector impact and leadership

Benefit from refined performance metrics that will allow comparison between sector specific performance and better differentiation of sector leaders

A future reduced reporting burden

As the sector-specific assessment develops, the removal of indicators deemed not applicable to Residential portfolios will streamline the experience for residential participants 

Optimized reporting with the Residential Assessment

The Residential Assessment provides GRESB Real Estate Participants with an improved, streamlined report tailored to their needs by:

  • Removing assessment indicators from the report that are not applicable to the residential sector, along with their associated scores
  • Restructuring and repurposing other indicators to align with industry practices
  • Adjusting scoring weights for existing indicators to better reflect their material importance, with increased weight on tenant health and well-being, community engagement initiatives, and measures in place for monitoring community impact
  • Developing new indicators that cover missing topics that are material to residential investments, including the fair attribution and affordability of housing, community safety measures, and access to infrastructure and amenities that improve quality of life
  • Providing supplemental scores, ranking, rating, and Peer Group functionalities that are separate from the main Real Estate Benchmark Report

FAQs

  • The Sector Insight: Residential Report is provided as a standalone output for participants whose portfolios are composed of 75% or more residential assets by Gross Asset Value (GAV) and who complete the residential component of the assessment. It retains the familiar layout and user experience of the standard GRESB Benchmark Report, ensuring consistency in navigation and interpretation for participants. 

    The report is structured around the two main components of the Real Estate Assessment— Management and Performance—and includes core benchmarking features such as the GRESB Score and position within the GRESB Residential Universe. 

    Key distinctions include: 

    • The integration of residential-specific indicators (RES1–RES6), which address sector-relevant topics such as fair housing, infrastructure quality, and affordability. 
    • Recalibrated scoring weights for selected existing indicators, reflecting performance drivers that are more relevant to the residential context. 

  • Participants who complete the Residential Component and meet the eligibility criteria (>75% of Gross Asset Value in residential assets) will receive two separate reports: 

    1. A Real Estate Benchmark Report, which includes all assets and follows the scoring structure and point allocation as described in the Scoring Document and the Reference Guide. 
    2. A Sector Insight: Residential Report, which includes only the residential assets and is based on the Residential-specific indicators and scoring adjustments (e.g., different point allocations for existing indicators like building certifications).   

  • The Real Estate Benchmark Report will include all assets submitted by the participant—both residential and non-residential—regardless of whether the entity opts into the Residential Component. However, the scoring applied in the Real Estate Benchmark Report will not reflect any residential-specific adjustments, even for residential assets. In other words, nothing about completing the Residential Component will change a participant’s traditional Real Estate Benchmark Report. 

    Residential-specific scoring updates (such as revised point allocations for indicators like TC3, TC4, or building certifications) are only applied in the Sector Insight: Residential Report, which is provided only if the entity’s portfolio is ≥75% residential by GAV​.

  • Yes, for the purpose of determining eligibility for the Residential Component and inclusion in the Sector Insight: Residential Report, all asset types that begin with “Residential” are considered residential. This includes: 

    • Residential: Multi-Family: Low-Rise 
    • Residential: Multi-Family: Mid-Rise 
    • Residential: Multi-Family: High-Rise 
    • Residential: Family Homes 
    • Residential: Student Housing 
    • Residential: Retirement Living 
    • Residential: Other

    Conversely, mixed-use asset types such as “Mixed use: Office/Residential” are not counted toward the residential GAV when evaluating the 75% threshold for participation in the Residential Component​. 

  • For the 2025 assessment, diversified portfolios with less than 75% residential GAV will not receive a Sector Insight: Residential Report even if they select the Residential Component within the Assessment Portal.  

    This threshold has been established to safeguard the integrity of the data collected during the inaugural year of the assessment, ensuring that it accurately reflects the performance of entities that are predominantly residential. The resulting data will play a crucial role in guiding the future development of the assessment and will support the Standards team in understanding on-the-ground realities. 

  • TC3 and TC4 indicators retain a scoring weight of 1.5 points in the Assessment Portal because this reflects their role in the Real Estate Benchmark Report. This scoring remains visible even for participants completing the Residential Component, as the portal structure does not dynamically adjust displayed weights based on component selection.

    However, in the Sector Insight: Residential Report, TC3 and TC4 will carry 0 points as they are not scored for residential participants, aligning with the residential scoring methodology.

  • As 2025 marks the inaugural year of the residential component and new residential indicators, including RES2, GRESB acknowledges that many elements are exploratory in nature. As such, GRESB does not prescribe specific methodologies for calculating either the walkability score or the percentage of residential portfolio covered, providing participants with the flexibility to tailor their approach.

    Participants are expected to: 

    Define their own methodology for calculating the walkability score, which should be a quantitative measure of access from a residential asset to nearby community amenities (e.g., public transport, parks, retail, schools). This could involve using third-party tools, internal scoring systems, or localized approaches, provided the method is clearly explained. 

    Similarly, the “percentage of residential portfolio covered” should reflect the share of the portfolio for which livability and/or walkability scores are available, using a method chosen by the participant. This may be calculated by asset count, unit count, GAV, or floor area, as long as the approach is transparently disclosed.

    This flexible, participant-defined methodology supports diverse data practices while allowing GRESB to assess on-the-ground realities and further develop future iterations of the Standard. The primary expectation is that participants provide clear justification and consistent application of their selected methods. 

  • Participants maintain full control over the visibility of the Sector Insight: Residential Report within the GRESB Portal. This policy applies to both listed and non-listed entities. In 2025, by default, the Sector Insight: Residential Report will only be accessible to the participant. No investors will have access unless the participant actively enables sharing in the portal settings.

  • Participants can add the new Residential Component to their assessment at any point up until their assessment submission. 

    To do so, they must: 

    1. Go to the Assessment Portal and select the relevant entity 
    2. Click on “More” in the portal menu 
    3. Navigate to “Component Selection” 
    4. Check the box for “Residential Component”

    This process allows participants to opt into the residential assessment section at any point before submission, without needing to restart their assessment. 

We welcome your feedback

GRESB is committed to ensuring that the Residential Component evolves in close alignment with industry needs.

To support the continued refinement and future development of the Residential Component, we invite all participants to share their experiences and suggestions. Your feedback will play a key role in helping GRESB ensure that the Residential Component remains relevant, practical, and impactful.

You can provide feedback at any time by using the form below.

 

Resources

To read about important updates on sector-specific criteria for residential assets, please refer to:

Contact our Member Relations Team to optimize your residential submissions

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