‘Why every building needs a digital DNA’
The real estate industry seems not to notice the revolution underway in how we buy, sell and value property. By Ross Griffin.
As CEO of Kosmos, a digital cost carbon consultancy, and creator of The Fifth Dimension, a platform for tracking cost and carbon budgets in real time, I believe the industry is about to face a reckoning that will change the very definition of value. I say that as someone who has spent the last 25 years on every side of the construction and real estate industry, from contractor to consultant and from adviser to founder.
The real estate market is on the verge of a revolution, one that will redefine value, liquidity, and risk. Transactions once built on scattered PDFs and incomplete data will no longer pass scrutiny, as investors demand transparent, transferable ‘digital DNA’: a full cost and carbon history of every asset. Assets without it will become stranded or heavily discounted, while those that have it will trade faster and at a premium value. The question is no longer if this shift will happen, but whether your portfolio will be ready when it does.
Gil Scott-Heron’s famous song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, feels strangely apt for real estate today. A revolution is already underway in how we buy, sell, and value property, but most of the industry has barely noticed.
For decades, transactions have run on little more than guesswork and paper trails. Multi-million-dollar deals were often decided based on outdated drawings or incomplete operating histories.
Now that improvisation is running out of road. Sustainability has forced its way into the heart of real estate. Investors are being asked to consider not just yield, but carbon; not just rent rolls, but resilience. The idea that a building’s future can be assessed without knowing its environmental impact is disappearing. And with it, the comfortable dysfunction of the old system.
Record of an asset’s life
This is why every building will need a digital DNA. Think of it as a logbook that holds the complete record of an asset’s life – construction budgets, carbon footprints, retrofit strategies, operational costs – all gathered, organised, and transferable from one owner to the next digitally. Investors will want to see the history and the forward plan. Without it, the building is a liability. With it, the building becomes liquid, credible, and valuable.
We are already seeing transactions collapse because the data isn’t trusted. Assets are being written down because carbon plans don’t hold up. What happens when this becomes the rule rather than the exception? Billions in value could be wiped out overnight.
In short, assets without digital DNA will soon be uninvestable. That isn’t alarmism, it is the direction of travel. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and few things are as uncertain as a building without reliable data.
The winners in this new landscape will be the owners who act early, who build transparency into their portfolios before it is forced. For them, digital DNA won’t be a compliance exercise; it will be a competitive edge. Assets will trade faster, at higher value, and with lower risk.
This is where Kosmos comes in. For the past five years, we’ve worked with global owners and developers to create the systems, standards, and strategies that futureproof their portfolios. Unlike most companies, we don’t just provide a strategy. We combine technology with decades of advisory experience across construction, cost, and carbon, so we can implement and manage these strategies for our customers.
That distinction matters. Many tools offer snapshots of data, and most consultants lack lifecycle thinking. We build the digital DNA of the asset: a living record that carries across owners and evolves with every stage of the lifecycle. While others separate finance from sustainability, our approach integrates both, showing in real-time how decarbonisation choices impact cost, value, and risk. And while many systems stop at project management, our focus is on what matters most to investors: protecting transaction value.
From projects in Europe, Latin America, and the US, the goal is the same. When the market shifts, our clients’ assets are not only compliant, they are premium.
The choice could not be clearer. The real test for every asset owner will be simple: when the market turns, will your portfolio be investor-ready, or will it be stranded?
At Kosmos, our role is to make sure you are ready not someday, but now. The revolution may not be televised. However, when the market wakes up, those prepared will already be out in front. n
Ross Griffin is CEO and founder of Kosmos
