A real estate company on a mission to do things differently

A rendering of a Home.Earth development

Landlords don’t always get the best reputation. Given the strong demand for housing in urban centres there are rarely consequences for property owners letting out low-quality units at high rents and pay little mind to sustainability.

Just as greener fashion firms try to re-engineer business models that pursue the creation of huge volumes of low-quality garments, progressive property developers like Rasmus N?rgaard are thinking critically about the future of their portfolios. After all, says N?rgaard, “Good buildings should last 100 years… we should really be thinking in longer time horizons”

N?rgaard is a veteran urban property developer in the Nordics and the Founder of Home.Earth, a Conduit Connect company and real estate developer “committed to doing things differently.” Some 40% of energy-related global carbon emissions come from the built environment, so it was clear to N?rgaard that his properties should have the lowest carbon footprint possible. Scandinavia is known as a leader in sustainable design, and having spent his whole career in the space, N?rgaard could draw on the best of the best to make this happen. Beyond carbon, Home.Earth focus on material use, waste, circularity as well as biodiversity impacts both on-site and off-site through its supply chain. For on-site biodiversity Home.Earth, utilizes the Biodiversity Net Gain approach from the UK, which seeks to ensure that biodiversity is measurably improved after a site has been developed.

Rendering showing the view from a balcony of a Home.Earth property

While a small but increasing share of the property industry focus on the climate and environmental impact of the industry, then N?rgaard feels that affordability is being neglected, even in progressive Copenhagen. “For most people, housing is the biggest item in the budget,” says N?rgaard, noting that population growth and urbanisation have put many major cities’ housing stock under stress. “Tenants are a key value creator, and property owners should recognise this,” he says, acknowledging that in cities like Copenhagen or London, tenants are often powerless.

To challenge this, Home.Earth has created a hybrid model between renting and ownership, where tenants share in the profits of Home.Earth. Furthermore, Home.Earth seek to develop homes that are both affordable in their design as well as cheap to vacate given the design choices made. The hope is a transparent, trusting tenant-landlord relationship that creates vibrant and inclusive communities.

Home.Earth capitalised 12 months ago, and is currently a four-property portfolio, with one in construction, one operational, and two in development. The company is in the process of acquiring a fifth. To protect themselves from the short-termism of the market, Home.Earth has established a foundation to create a ‘mission lock’ on the company. The foundation receives 5% of the profits in Home.Earth which are allocated to innovation and research to ensure Home.Earth is at the cutting edge of sustainability and social impact.

Another upside to taking a long-term view to business? N?rgaard has the chance to bring investors on a learning journey: “Our investors are entrepreneurial people with good values — people who believe that real estate is an area with significant scope for innovation and positive impact, and they are motivated by that.”

It would be hard to argue the world doesn’t need more landlords like that.

Learn more about Home.Earth here.

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