The Future Is Built, Not Bought: Roger Tofft on PropTech, Patience & the 10-Year Revolution

Real estate is the world’s largest asset class—and its slowest to change.
Roger Tofft believes that’s exactly why it’s the next frontier for exponential innovation.


As founder of PropTech Sweden, Tofft has spent the last decade turning Nordic startups into international success stories. His mission: connect technology, policy, and purpose so that every building becomes a living organism in the global climate system.


This episode of DT Vector

  • Unveils the anatomy of a smart building: sensors feeding data into AI engines that learn occupancy, weather, and behavior to reduce emissions without reducing comfort.
  • Decodes why venture capital struggles with PropTech’s long timelines—comparing it to life sciences, where real breakthroughs mature over 10 years.
  • Builds clarity on how Europe’s fragmented market can unite through shared standards like Real Estate Core and collaborative “triple-helix” models linking cities, universities, and industry.

3 Reasons to Listen

  1. See how Swedish municipalities are using PropTech to reach climate-neutral goals by 2030 — and why that matters globally.
  2. Learn how AI-driven energy systems saved one Swedish developer 67 % on power costs in a single year.
  3. Understand the cultural shift from “space as product” to “space as system”—where value is measured in experience, not square meters.

Why It Matters in 2025 and Beyond

The next five years will decide whether cities become climate solutions or climate liabilities.
PropTech isn’t an app trend; it’s the infrastructure of resilience. Tofft’s insight reframes real estate as data infrastructure—every building a node in a planetary network of energy, people, and purpose.

Those who learn this language will design the cities that last.


DT Vector Dictionary

  1. PropTech: Technology transforming how we design, operate, and experience buildings.
  2. 10-Year Rule: The natural maturation cycle for deep innovation in regulated industries.
  3. Triple Helix: Collaboration among government, academia, and industry to accelerate change.
  4. Real Estate Core: Open-source data standard enabling interoperability across smart buildings.
  5. Energy Intelligence: AI-driven management of consumption, generation, and storage.
  6. Space-as-a-System: Viewing property as a living digital-physical ecosystem.
  7. Collaboration Capital: The network value created when ecosystems share data and insight.
  8. Climate-Neutral City 2030: EU initiative pushing urban areas toward net-zero emissions.

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