Nature-Based Accounting for Urban Real Estate: Traditional Architectural Wisdom and Metrics for Sustainability and Well-Being

The loss of urban nature and declining biodiversity pose significant challenges to the sustainability of cities and the well-being of their inhabitants. Existing initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) have begun to address ecological risks in real estate, but they still address mental health, biodiversity, and social equity only partially as non-financial values. This article adopts an integrative review and conceptual framework approach. It develops a nature-based accounting framework for urban real estate that combines principles of traditional Chinese architecture with contemporary sustainability metrics. The study reviews ecological theory, nature-related accounting, and evidence on biodiversity and mental health, and then undertakes an operational mapping from classical site planning, courtyard design, water management, and community structures to measurable indicators that remain compatible with TNFD-aligned reporting. The framework groups indicators into three main domains: nature-related conditions, ecosystem service pathways, and human well-being outcomes. It also outlines simple procedures for normalising and combining these indicators at the project scale to support assessments of biodiversity, microclimate, mental health, and basic aspects of cost-effectiveness and social accessibility in urban real estate projects. The paper provides a structured, heritage-informed basis for future applications and empirical testing, helping to incorporate biodiversity, mental health, and equity into urban real estate assessment.