The Danish government wants to make it easier for renters to establish cooperative housing associations. This move comes as the number of cooperative apartments in Denmark has stagnated at around 200,000 units in recent years. Social and Housing Minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen revealed the plans as part of a long-awaited housing proposal that will be presented in full shortly.
Currently, over 219,000 private rental properties fall under what's known as 'tilbudspligt' or offer obligation rules. These regulations give tenants first refusal rights when their landlord wants to sell a property. Residents can purchase the building and form a cooperative housing association. However, the housing minister says this opportunity remains underutilized because existing rules create too much bureaucracy and expense.
Andersen explained the core problem clearly. 'The rules today are too bureaucratic and costly,' she stated. 'They don't support the establishment of more cooperative housing.' The government now proposes making several aspects of the process 'more flexible and transparent.'
Key changes would exempt certain requirements and speed up property inspections and assessments. The most substantial reform concerns credit evaluation procedures. Under current rules, prospective cooperative members face a significant barrier. They must undergo credit assessment not only for their individual share but for the entire property's debt divided equally among all future owners. For a building with 10 million kroner in debt, each potential member gets assessed for that full amount.
The new proposal would cut this burden in half. 'We suggest that future credit assessments should be based on an equal distribution of half the amount,' Andersen said. This means members would only need approval for 5 million kroner instead of 10 million in our example.
Cooperative housing represents a unique aspect of Denmark's housing market, particularly in urban areas. More than half of the country's cooperative apartments are located in Copenhagen Municipality or Frederiksberg Municipality. These housing arrangements typically function as member-owned corporations where residents purchase shares rather than owning real property directly.
Recent research from the Rockwool Foundation highlighted some challenges within the system. Their study found that cooperative housing residents in Copenhagen often distribute available apartments to their own family members. On average, every sixth resident has parents, siblings, adult children, or other close relatives living in the same cooperative housing association.
Research professor Rasmus Landersø from the Rockwool Foundation described the cooperative housing market as 'a closed club to some extent.' Apartments typically sell through internal or external waiting lists, with association members themselves determining the principles governing these lists.
The government's housing proposal won't address these distribution practices directly. 'I simply believe the solution is that we get more cooperative housing,' Andersen explained, 'not that we should go in and regulate.' This approach focuses on expanding supply rather than reforming allocation methods.
For international observers, Denmark's cooperative housing model offers an interesting alternative to traditional rental and ownership markets. These reforms could make this middle-ground option more accessible while addressing the country's ongoing housing challenges in major urban centers. The changes represent a pragmatic attempt to streamline processes without fundamentally altering the cooperative housing structure that has served many Danish families for generations.