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Stranded Property Assets

Author/s: John Sheehan, Ken Rayner

Date Published: 13/06/2026

Published in: Volume 31 - 2026 Issue 1 (pages 98 - 103)

DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/10.64361/14445921.2026.212329

Abstract

The concept of “stranded assets” has emerged primarily within climate change and financial risk literature to describe assets that suffer premature devaluation due to environmental transition, regulatory reform, or shifts in market expectations. Originating in analyses of fossil fuel reserves and carbon-intensive infrastructure, the concept has since been extended to encompass broader environmental and systemic financial risks. Yet, despite its growing prominence in environmental economics and financial stability discourse, the idea of stranding has received little sustained attention within property law or property valuation theory and practice. This omission is striking. Property assets are uniquely exposed to regulatory change, temporal lag, and institutional evolution, and thus provide a particularly fertile site for examining how and why assets become stranded.

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Keywords

Economic Obsolescence - Property Law - Regulatory Change - Stranded Assets - Valuation Theory

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