Briefing | Risk of subsidence

Homeowners face a $25trn bill from climate change

Property, the world’s biggest asset class, is also its most vulnerable

A house partially hangs over a cliff edge following rapid coastal erosion in Norfolk, United Kingdon
Photograph: Getty Images
|MIAMI

THE residentS of northern Italy had never seen anything like the thunderstorm that mauled their region last summer. Hailstones as big as 19cm across pummelled Milan, Parma, Turin and Venice. Windows were broken, solar panels smashed, tiles cracked and cars dented. The episode cost the insurance industry $4.8bn, making it the most expensive natural disaster in the world from July to September (the figures exclude America, which collates such data separately).

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This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Risk of subsidence”

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