The data is clear. Prevention is crucial.
The water damage you see today was often decided years ago: in the choice of site, in a drawing, in a postponed maintenance plan. Extreme weather just sends the bill. For If, that's exactly where prevention needs to start.
Norwegian insurers paid 38.3 billion NOK for weather-related and natural hazard damage to buildings and contents over the last decade, according to If's 2025 Extreme Weather Report. The figure excludes damage to roads, infrastructure and state-owned buildings.
The report's municipal survey exposes another vulnerability: nine in ten municipalities had experienced extreme weather, yet half had no dedicated climate adaptation budget.
Connecting the dots
For the property industry, this is where Oslo Proptech Summit's theme, "Resilient by Design: The Data Layer", becomes practical.
Connecting property information, condition assessments and claims experience can help identify vulnerabilities and prioritise interventions. The next step is making that insight useful to those responsible across the value chain.
Technology has to earn its place
Preventive solutions spanning across products and services can help owners detect problems earlier, plan maintenance and reduce exposure.
"The Cost of Waiting" to act is one of the key topics that will be addressed during the summit with Line Gjengedal Ruud, If's Head of Large, Complex & International Claims Nordic. Ruud will bring this perspective to the stage and has called for preparedness to include preventing damage, with climate adaptation treated as a long-term investment.
Prevention is a team effort
If Insurance is present at the summit to share risk insight, learn from the industry and explore collaborations in property development and preventive services.
The challenges involve developers, owners, operators, insurers, municipalities and technology providers. Each influences part of the outcome.
"Different actors see different parts of the same challenge. Bringing them together helps us explore new possibilities within preventative products and services as well as collaboration opportunities, which is why meeting across sectors matters,» says McNeill.
The data gives the industry a reason to act. The Summit is an opportunity to decide how to act together to combat the risks at stake.
