We all have a roof over our heads and a bed to sleep in if we’re lucky. And if we’re unlucky– which most of us with homes actually are- we spend a significant portion of our monthly budget on housing. This is only increasing: the size of houses, the cost of rents, and mortgages, especially in highly sought-after cities. As a result, many people are left with less budget for high-quality regenerative food. This situation isn’t sustainable, economically or socially, especially given that the building sector is incredibly wasteful and consumes vast amounts of fossil fuels.
Straight from Copenhagen, a conversation with Rasmus Nørgaard, co-founder of Urban Partners, Home.Earth and Nordhus , with over two decades of experience in real estate, pushing the boundaries of sustainability within conventional systems. With Rasmus we dive deep into the world of real estate. Not “real assets” (although buildings are assets), but the actual built environment: homes, concrete, steel, and hopefully a lot more wood in the future. The built environment is one of the three major sectors that needs a complete systems change, alongside with agrifood and energy.
What happens when you reimagine real estate development from first principles? And what can we in the regenerative agriculture and food sector learn from one of the pioneers of sustainable real estate? Rasmus shares the revolutionary approach behind Home Earth, a company proving that sustainable, affordable housing can also be profitable. He is building a much more holistic (dare we say Horizon 3?) for-profit company that is reinventing real estate from the ground up. And he’s convinced: long-term real estate companies like this will prove more profitable, even financially, than those driven by short-term thinking. Yes, we talk a lot about buildings and homes, but there are so many overlaps with agriculture and food. Let’s face it: soil is a real asset in investment terms.
We ought to learn from the best in real estate to bring more aligned capital into the ground fast.
In the end, it’s all about aligning incentives and creating the right structures to build things that last.
WHY THE CURRENT REAL ESTATE PROCESS IS BROKEN
The conventional building sector is plagued by fragmentation, with architects designing from scratch for each project, contractors building with minimal long-term accountability, and investors seeking quick returns. This disconnect has created a system where buildings routinely go over budget, past deadlines, and fail to optimize for longevity or planetary boundaries.
Real estate development has a fragmented and short-term nature. He contrasts it with automotive manufacturing, where standardised platforms enable efficiency and accountability.
“If you think of real estate, it’s a highly costly asset. And yet, once we design real estate, we start from scratch every time… you design buildings from outside in. So first you have a site; you ask, go to your architect; they place a volume on the site. Then you start putting in your functions… A lot of the people involved in that value chain are involved for a couple of years, whereas you have a building that’ll be there for hopefully a hundred-plus years.” Rasmus Nørgaard
HOW TO ALIGN INCENTIVES OF BUILDERS, ARCHITECTS, TENANTS AND INVESTORS TO REACH THE MOST SUSTAINABLE AND PROFITABLE OUTCOME
Home.Earth flips this model by taking a product-focused, systems approach. By designing standardized housing components that can be repeated and improved across projects, they’ve achieved the lowest carbon footprint ever recorded for a residential building in Denmark. But the innovation doesn’t stop with materials and design—they’re reimagining the entire relationship between buildings, owners, and residents. Misaligned incentives prevent collaboration. Developers, architects, contractors, and tenants operate in silos, eroding long-term value.
“How many industries can you think of where you outsource your customer relationship to the cheapest service provider? In most industries your customer relationship is the most valuable… [In real estate] you have a very fragmented value chain… it means information gets lost.” Rasmus Nørgaard
BUILDING AND STRUCTURING FOR THE LONG TERM
Perhaps most revolutionary is their profit-sharing model, where approximately 10% of returns go directly back to tenants through rent reductions and community budgets. This creates aligned incentives that benefit everyone, resulting in less turnover, better-maintained buildings, and stronger communities. Their financial structure also allocates 5% to research and innovation through a foundation, ensuring continuous improvement in their approach. Enduring ownership is essential to prioritise lifecycle efficiency and user needs over short-term profits.
“We need to integrate and, to some extent, industrialise that value chain or take responsibility across that value chain… the long-term owner ultimately. So, you could say for Home.Earth, that’s one of the reasons why we set it up as, in principle, an evergreen company, because we want to be a long-term owner that is super present in the beginning of the design process.” Rasmus Nørgaard
WHAT A HOLISTIC APPROACH LOOKS LIKE IN REAL ESTATE
The parallels with regenerative agriculture are striking: both sectors struggle with misaligned incentives between short-term financial pressures and long-term asset health. By creating ownership structures and financial models that reward long-term thinking, Home Earth offers valuable lessons for reimagining how we fund, operate, and benefit from regenerative land management. Sustainability must address both planetary boundaries and social equity. Focusing solely on decarbonisation or affordability neglects interconnected crises.
“I wanted to get to a place where we could do this holistically… let’s say we managed to decarbonise, but the housing crisis has exploded even more. Is that a good outcome? Or let’s say we’ve solved affordability, but we are using concrete everywhere, and we are nowhere near kind of the planetary boundaries.” Rasmus Nørgaard
OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED
Koen and Rasmus also talked about:
- Tenant relationship insourcing
- Reducing tenant move-out costs
- Profit-sharing with tenants
LINKS:
LINKED INTERVIEWS:
- Thomas Hogenhaven – The €22M regen fund that said no to €7M
- Cindie Christiansen – Top 50 Farmers update and the simple tweak to raise millions for regeneration
- Matt Schmitt – How to make regenerative food and agriculture bankable
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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.