Finding a place to live
Finding housing can be an effort. Most foreign nationals working in Denmark choose to rent a home
If you do not receive company-provided housing, you can either choose to rent or to buy housing.
Most foreign nationals who work in Denmark choose to rent their home, as it is the type of home with the least obligations.
In general, it is difficult as a foreigner to buy real estate in Denmark. When buying real estate in Denmark, there are two main kinds:
- Traditional owner-occupied housing, which the owner has at his or her own disposal
- Cooperative housing, where you own a property together with others and run it as a cooperative housing society.
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There is no central register of vacant private rental property. It is the individual letter’s decision how to advertise a vacant flat and to whom the flat is to be let.
Flats and rooms for rent are often advertised on the Internet or found through colleagues, friends and acquaintances.
There are rental property portals where you have the opportunity to search for private rental property throughout the country. On the rental property portal, DanmarkBolig.dk, you will find a detailed presentation of more than 550,000 council housing dwellings.
On the Internet, there are many sites where you can find estate agents. General advice:
- Search the Internet
- Read ads in daily newspapers, local papers or special housing newspapers
- Sign up on a waiting list
- Place a notice in a supermarket, most of them have a board for ads
- Ask family, friends and acquaintances.
As finding accommodation is particularly difficult in the capital of Copenhagen, the City of Copenhagen has gathered more specific information on accommodation:
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In general it is difficult as a foreigner to buy real estate in Denmark. Depending on where you come from there are certain rules.
If you are a national of an EU/EEA Member State, you may buy real estate in Denmark without applying for permission as long as the property is to be used as your all-year dwelling, or the property is necessary for you in order to operate as a self-employed person.
If you are a national of another country than an EU/EEA Member State, you must apply to the Ministry of Justice for permission to buy real estate in Denmark. When the Ministry of Justice has received all the information necessary for considering an application for permission to acquire an all-year dwelling, the expected processing time is usually about four weeks.
For more information, please consult a real estate agent or read more about the rules on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
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Rents in Denmark vary widely, depending on the location, size, and general condition of the specific dwelling. You can rent a room, a flat or a single-family house.
In small towns and in the countryside, it is usually easy to find rented accommodation at a reasonable price, whereas in the capital of Copenhagen and in the second-largest city of Aarhus, affordable accommodation can be somewhat harder to find.
You can rent either from a private landlord or a housing association.
There are many housing associations in Denmark, covering a wide range of flats and single-family houses built with public subsidies. The rent is typically lower than for other types of rental accommodation, but they are often difficult to obtain for foreign nationals because they are usually let out on the basis of a waiting list.
In Danish, the concept “to rent” is “at leje”.
A standard rental contract for private letting can be downloaded via the website of the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs:
Subletting is quite common and for many the first place of residence is often a temporary one.
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When renting a home, please make sure you get a rental contract, and check the following before you sign it:
- Read the terms carefully and make sure it describes the specific terms and conditions clearly. A standard contract has been issued by the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration
- You will typically have up to three months’ notice to terminate the lease, which applies to both the letter and yourself as a tenant
- A deposit is usually required. Normally one month’s deposit for a room and three months’ deposit for a flat. Whether you get the full deposit back depends on the condition of the flat when you move out
- Do not pay any deposit in advance without having a contract
- Normally, utilities such as heating, water, and gas are not included in the rent. If they are, it will be specified
- Check the room/flat personally before signing the rental contract
- You must report any defects in the flat no later than 14 days after you have taken it over. Otherwise you may have to pay for the defects yourself.
A standard rental contract for private letting can be downloaded via the website of the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs.
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If you are an international student, you can apply for student accommodation. Contact the international office at the school or university, where you will be studying.
There are many student residences. Some of them are privately owned with their own independent administration. In the Danish capital of Copenhagen you can, free of charge, get on the waiting list for a student residence at “Kollegiernes Kontor I København”, which is an organisation that administers accommodation for approx. 5,891 students and young people in Copenhagen and the surrounding areas.
- Kollegiernes Kontor i København (new window)
- Where should I look to find housing in Copenhagen? (new window)
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Housing benefits are a grant that you can get to help pay your rent if you are renting a home with its own kitchen. You must have a permanent address there, meaning you have to stay at the residence for more than half the time of your tenancy. Housing benefits are administered by Udbetaling Danmark - Public Benefits Administration.
Find more information about housing benefits:
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If you want to change your Danish address, you have to inform the authorities. This can be done online via the online service you activate by clicking Start. Before you can use the online service you need to have a digital signature called NemID. You can read more about NemID via the link below.
To order a NemID you need, in most cases, to contact your local citizen service center and show valid identification. To read more about NemID and what kind of valid ID to bring:
Order NemID online
The digital ordering process of NemID is in Danish only and it requires a Danish driver's licence or a Danish passport to order a NemID. If you have a Danish driver's licence or a Danish passport, you can order a NemID via the link below:
You can at the earliest inform the authorities of your change of address four weeks before you move and it must be done no later than five days after you have moved to your new home.
You also have to inform the postal service, Post Danmark, of your relocation. This can also be done online with NemID.
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Remember to put your name on your door or on your mailbox as soon as possible in order to be able to receive your mail. Important documents, such as you CPR number and the yellow health card, can get delayed or lost if your family name is not on your door of mailbox.
Electricity in Denmark is 230 Volts and the electrical frequency is 50 Hertz. If you bring an electrical appliance to Denmark that does not accept 230 Volts at 50 Hertz, you will need a voltage converter.
These two types of plugs are most common in Denmark:
- Plug C: Popularly known as the Euro plug. It is a two-pin unearthed plug
- Plug K: Has two round pins and a spade grounding pin.
In residences, general transportable 230 V class I electrical appliances, for example coffee machines, irons and toasters need not be fitted with an earthed plug. If the socket has no earth connection, the ground wire cannot be connected and it is therefore necessary to ensure that the socket is protected by means of ground fault circuit breakers (HFI/HPFI).
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In connection with most residential buildings, waste containers are placed in the backyard. Please ask the landlord for detailed information on how to handle your waste.
If you rent your home, waste handling is included in the monthly rent. If you own your home, you pay an annual fee to your municipality.
In some areas, citizens are required to separate their daily household waste. Many buildings have waste containers for glass, paper, carton, plastic, electronic waste, batteries and dangerous waste.
Waste that can be recycled may be delivered at local recycling centres. This includes glass, metal, wood and paper items. The waste must be sorted according to type.
There are also municipal collection schemes for waste that cannot be handled together with general household waste – for example old furniture and broken fridges.
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When you rent housing, expenses for, for example, electricity and water consumption are most often not included in the rent. How much you will have to pay depends on how much you consume.
Your home is equipped with meters, which record your consumption. You can read the meters yourself and you must report the readings to the utility companies once a year and when moving in and moving out.
How to report meters
Reporting meters can often be done online or by phone. The necessary information – customer number and recipient number - is marked on your bill.
Central heating might be included in your rent as a monthly payment in advance. Once a year, the actual amount of consumed heating is read by a company. Typically, they will post a note in your hallway on when to expect their visit. If you are not able to be there, you will be asked to give your keys to a neighbour or the building’s caretaker.
Leaving a residence
You must read your meters before you move out and inform your provider. Otherwise you risk paying for more than you have consumed and you will be held responsible for the consumption until the next resident registers as a consumer.
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If you have access to information appliances, you must pay a Media license to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, DR. The Media license covers all TV sets, radios, video or DVD recorders, computers with Internet access, as well as mobile phones and similar electronic devices that also work as a television or radio receiver. A special Radio Licence covers radios only.
A license covers all appliances in the household, including car, boat and summer residence.
The licence is an appliance fee set by Parliament and handled by DR.
You need to register, within 14 days of procurement, whether you own, lease, or borrow your appliances; and regardless of whether you make use of DR's services or not.
Leaving Denmark, you need to cancel your licence fee registration. The cancellation takes effect from the day it is received by DR Licens and cannot be backdated.
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