Author Archives: Michael

About Michael

I am a Dane who fell in love with a girl from Malta when I was living in Prague. We moved to Sønderborg at the end of 2011. I make web applications for a living and enjoy taking photos and riding my bike. Read more...

Where to go sledding in Sønderborg

I have been quite disappointed in the winters we have had in Sønderborg the last two years. This year our oldest kid is 3 years old so he does enjoy snow.

Until the end of February all we really had was a few days of melting snow – just enough to make a snowman that quickly buckled under the temperatures a few days later.

But now – finally – as spring is officially starting in Denmark we get a decent dose of winter.

Where to find good hills for sledding

I asked on the excellent Facebook group Aktiviteter i Sønderborg (For børn) for suggestions for where to go sledding and received a lot of suggestions so I have added them to a map of sledding hills in Sønderborg (Kælkebakker i Sønderborg).

Which spot is your favourite? We have only tried one of these spots but will try and make it to some of them close to us.

If your favourite spot is not listed do write a comment or send us an email to let us know and we’ll add it.

If you are not in Sønderborg check out the Kælkebakke Kortet some areas of Denmark are quite well covered.

Ristorante Da Nico – Fast pizza, good food

Pizza restaurant Da Nico, SønderborgOn our way home one night from a concert at Sonderborg Castle we were discussing what to cook for dinner. As we walked by Ristorante Da Nico on Brogade we decided on a vim to go in for dinner. We have walked by numerous times by never actually made it inside and since it’s been a year we thought it was about time to try out this cozy looking place.

The place is well lit and simply decorated with items and posters from Italy giving it a homely, self-made, unpretentious feel – a bit at odds with the Danish way of making things cozy, dimmed and candlelit. This you can also see on their website which is straight to the point of the menu and nothing else.

(I think) The place is run by an Italian husband and wife Roberto & Nicola Pino.

We were there before six in the evening and the only guests in the restaurant so we had the waitress and cook to ourselves. While we were waiting for our order we were offered some complimentary bread and butter.

Our pizzas were fast to arrive, they were simple but made with fresh ingredients. The pizza base at Da Nico is thick and soft like the Neapolitan variety which makes the whole pizza a big meal.

All in all a good experience and a quick meal.

The Danish mortgage system and the negative interest rates

A Canadian journalist contacted me recently asking questions about how it works with the negative interest rate that is going on in Denmark at the moment and what effect that had on the housing market. Could it really be true that people would be paid to have a mortgage? The short answer is no – so far the fees added on top of the mortgage means that no one has actually gotten money from the bank for lending money to their house. Mortgages in Denmark

In order to give a proper reply to the Canadian journalist I asked Rasmus O. Firla-Holme the blogger at Pengepugeren if he could help explain what is going on. His answer is below.

Danish mortgage are based on bonds

As far and I understand the North American mortgage system you basically take out a bank loan with security on the home.

The Danish mortgage system is different in that most mortgages are not money borrowed directly from a bank, but rather from investors. There do exist simple bank loan mortgages (I have one of these), but far more are “realkredit” (directly translates to “real credit”). This mortgage system is praised internationally for being transparent, flexible and a low-risk investment.

A Realkredit mortgage is based on bonds. When you apply for a mortgage your broker issues bonds on your behalf and the money you get for the sale will pay for your house. As with most other bonds, the interest rate depends on the time scale and whether the rate is fixed, capped or floating. A 30 year floating interest rate will be lower than a fixed rate as investors have the opportunity to get a higher profit when interests go up in the future.

So why would anyone Invest in bonds with low or even negative interest rates? The answer is security and price.

Security

As mentioned, the Danish Realkredit is praised for being a safe Investment. During crises (e.g. when Greece government bonds turned too risky and the future of the Euro seems uncertain) investors can find a safe harbour in Danish Realkredit bonds. Interests may be low, but you can keep the money there until things cool down.

Price

Part of the low interest is offset by a low bond Price. When an investor buys a very low interest bond they also buy it with a 2, 3, 4 or even higher “discount”. The mortgage may be 2.1M DKK but the investor buys it for 2M. For you as a home buyer that means you sign up for a loan balance that initially is higher than the price of the house, but you get a low interest rate and thus a low monthly expense.

In short, as an investor you get a chance to buy a bond that provides a low or (on rare occasions) slightly negative interest rate, but you also get a low-risk Investment at a discounted price.

The negative interest rate

A negative (or very low) interest rate is in my opinion a sign that something is very wrong. Why would you ever make an Investment that is almost certain to lose money? The negative interest rates are a consequence of the central bank lowering their interest rate to below zero (currently -0.65 %). This makes it a better investment for banks to purchase slightly negative short-term interest bonds instead of depositing reserves in the central bank.

Also, negative interest rate Realkredit bonds are not by any means a common thing, it even caused issues with the brokers’ IT systems. This occurred to a small group of home owners who happened to renew their short term mortgages during a certain timespan. Although it’s a good story, it’s not like Danish home owners generally get paid for their mortgages. It’s mainly a good headline for the real story: That the Danish Realkredit mortgage is a pretty good, stable system with lower interest rates than in many other countries.

For good measure: Home owners don’t directly get paid for negative interest rates. The Realkredit brokers charge a monthly administration fee which vary from about 0.3% to about 2% depending on type of bond and home equity. As the few negative interest bonds are/were about -0.03% home owners still had a monthly payment to make.

Thanks to Rasmus from Pengepugeren for a very elaborate reply and explanation of the background and current situation. If you can read Danish or feel like running his site through Google Translate check out his blog. Some of his interesting posts I would recommend are:

Clubs, sports and activities in Sonderborg

Did you know that you can find any kind of sport or interest in Sonderborg or the surrounding area?

Or maybe not everything… but close. If there is a hobby and more than a handful of people who are interested, Danes tend to form a club with board members, members, general assembly, regular meetings, jule frokost etc. etc.

So of course there are football and handball but did you know that you can play floorball, go kart, American Football and chess around here?

Some of the clubs are named not after Sønderborg but a wider or narrower area, so there are things like “Skakklubben Alssund” or “Ulkebøl Badminton“.

Over several sessions I have tried to gather a list of all the clubs in Sønderborg Kommune that I could find and add them to a map.

Here is the map and list.

Aerobic club (Sønderborg AerobicClub) Sønderborg AerobicClub http://www.soenderborg-aerobicclub.dk/
American Football Sønderborg Seargeants http://sergeants.dk/
Archery club Sønderborg Bueskyttelaug http://www.s-bl.dk/
Athletics club Vidar Atletik http://vidaratletik.dk/
Badminton (Dybbøl) http://www.dybbolbadminton.dk/
Badminton club (SFS) Sønderborg Familie og Firma Sport http://www.sfs-sonderborg.dk/badminton.html
Badminton club (Ulkebøl) Ulkebøl Badminton http://xn--ulkeblbadminton-9tb.dk/
Ballet school Sønderjyllands Danseakademi http://www.sonderborgmusikskole.dk/Danseakademiet/Hjem.aspx
Basketball Club Spirillen http://www.spirillen.dk/
Beer appreciation club Danske Ølentusiaster :: Sønderborg http://www.ale.dk/index.php?id=435
Bicycle club (SCK) SCK Cykling http://www.sck-cykling.dk/
Bicycle Club (SCM) Sønderborg Cykelmotion http://cms-soenderborg.dk/
Billard Club Sønderborg Billard Club http://www.sbc1981.dk/
Bowling Funbowling http://www.funbowling.dk/
Boxing Club Sønderborg Amatør BokseKlub http://sabk.dk/
Chess Club Skakklubben Alssund http://www.alssundskak.dk/
Climbing club Sønderborg klatreklub http://www.soenderborgklatreklub.dk/
Cricket http://cricket.dk/sonderborg-cricket-club/
Cross Fit Club CrossFit Sønderborg http://crossfitsoenderborg.dk/
Dancing club (AB Dance) AB Dance http://www.abdance.dk/
Diving club Sønderborg Sportsdykkerklub http://www.ssk-dyk.dk/
Fishing Club Sportsfiskerforeningen ALS http://www.sportsfiskerforeningenals.dk/
Fitness Club (City Fitness) Sønderborg City Fitness www.c-fitness.dk
Fitness Club (Fitness World) Fitness World – Sønderborg www.fitnessworld.dk
Fitness Club (Zielkes) Zielkes Fitnessklub http://www.zielkes.dk/
Flooball club Sønderborg Floorball Club http://www.thevikings.dk/
Flying club Alssund Flyverklub http://www.sonderborg-lufthavn.dk/alssund-flyveklub.html
Football club (SFS) Sønderborg Familie og Firma Sport http://www.sfs-sonderborg.dk/fodbold.html
Go Kart club Als Go Kart klub alsgokartklub.dk
Golf Club Sønderborg Golfklub www.alssundgolf.dk
Handball (Vidar-Ulkebøl) Vidar-Ulkebøl Håndbold http://www.vidar-ulkebol.dk/
Handball club (Dybbøl) Dybbøl Håndbold http://haandbold.dybbol-iu.dk/
Indoor swimmingpool Humlehøjhallen http://www.humlehojhallen.dk/
Karate club (Ashihara) Ashihara karate http://www.ashihara-sonderborg.dk/
Karate Club (Yawara-Do) Yawara-Do http://yawara-do.dk/
Kayak club Sønderborg Kajakklub http://www.sonderborgkajakklub.dk/
Krolf Club Sønderborg Krolfklub http://www.sonderborgkrolfklub.dk/
Linux User Group Alssund Linux User Group http://alslug.dk/
Minigolf https://funbowling.dk/#minigolf
Mixed Martial Arts Club Sønderborg MMA http://www.sdbg-mma.dk/
Model airplane club Sønderborg Modelflyveklub http://www.modelflyveklubber.dk/soenderborg-modelflyveklub.aspx
Model Train Club Sønderborg Modeljernbaneklub http://www.modeljernbaneklub.dk/
Motocross Club SMC Sonderborg Motorclub http://www.sonderborgmotorclub.dk/
Mountain bike club MTB Sønderborg http://www.mtbs.dk/
Orienteering race club Sønderborg Orienterings Klub http://www.sonderborg-ok.dk/
Poker Club Sønderborg Poker Klub http://www.sonderborgpokerklub.dk/
Ramblers/Hikers club Fodslaw Sønderborg – Vandrefalkene http://fodslawsonderborg.dk/
Riding Club (Klinting) Klinting Rideklub https://www.facebook.com/KlintingRideklub
Riding club (Sønderborg Rideklub) Sønderborg Rideklub http://www.sonderborg-rideklub.dk/
Role Playing Club Sønderborg Rollespils Klub “Mithrandir” http://slrk.weebly.com/
Rowing club Sønderborg Roklub http://www.sonderborg-roklub.dk/
Rugby club (not active?) Sønderborg Barbarians https://www.facebook.com/groups/8631235372/
Running Club Meets on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Groups for different levels, from complete beginners to marathon running. http://www.vidarmotion.dk/
Salsa Club Alsalsa http://alsalsa.dk/
Shooting club (SFS and SSK) http://www.sonderborgskyttekreds.dk/
Ski Club Sonderborg Ski Klub http://www.sonderborgskiklub.dk/
Squash Club Sønderborg Squash Club www.sonderborg-squash.dk
Swimming Club Svømmeklubben Sønderborg http://www.sks-svoem.dk/
Table Tennis (Broager) http://broager-bordtennis.dk/
Tabletennis club (SFS) Sønderborg Familie og Firma Sport http://www.sfs-sonderborg.dk/bordtennis.html
Taekwondo club (Chung Un) Chung Un Taekwondo http://www.chung-un.dk/chung/
Taekwondo club (STK) Sønderborg Taekwondo Klub www.stkdk.dk
Tango Club La Cunita – Sønderborg Tango http://www.tangosonderborg.dk/
Tennis Club (Dybbøl) http://www.dybboltennis.dk/
Tennis club (Sønderborg) Sønderborg Tennisklub http://www.stktennis.dk/
Triathlon Club Sønderborg Triathlon Klub http://www.stk90.dk/
Viking Association Als viking-middelalder laug http://avml.dk/
Volleyball Club Sønderborg Volleyball Klub http://www.sovk.dk/
Winter bathing club Sønderborg Vikingklub http://www.sonderborg-vikingeklub.dk/
Wrestling club (not active?) Brydeklubben Alsia http://www.bkalsia.dk/
Yacht Club Sønderborg Yacht Club http://www.sycjunior.dk/ http://www.syc.dk/

 

Any clubs I missed?

Sønderborg’s new steakhouse: Barbie BBQ

There is a new restaurant in Sønderborg and if you haven’t been yet – it’s worth trying it out.

Sønderborg has seen some interesting new food and beverage places pop up the last year or two but in my book this one might be the most interesting so far.

The restaurant is named Barbie (as in barbecue not Ken’s girlfriend) and the theme is “new American barbecue” which means slow roasted meat like pulled pork, pork belly, beef brisket and steaks with sides of mash & gravy, coleslaw and mac & cheese.

The decor of the place is very simple and basic. There is concrete floors and bare ceilings with simple wood furniture like something out of the hip meat packing district in Copenhagen.

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But the building actually has a long history. It goes back to 1903 when it was built as the first Danish assembly hall in the then-German Sønderborg. In 1907 it became a restaurant/dancehall ‘Kaiserkrone’ that could seat 500 and host balls for 800 people. Once the German navy base closed down it became a cinema and more recently it has been the shop called Als Design Center (which still exists online). Now it is again a restaurant and this time it has room for 140 inside and 50 outside making it one of Sønderborg’s biggest restaurants.

The people behind the restaurant are no rookies in starting restaurants. Barbie is started by twin brothers Rasmus and Jakob Oubæk and Christian Brandt. Rasmus Oubæk has been nicknamed “The King of Bearnaise” and these guys run six popular restaurants in Copenhagen that get good reviews.

OK enough chatter – on to the food we had in Sønderborg…

We made a booking an hour before we arrived on Saturday evening and we could get a table without problems. Once we got there the place was busy but not completely full.

The menu is really short (4 snacks, 8 mains, 3 desserts) so it wasn’t too difficult to pick something. We ordered the ribeye steak and brisket sandwich, a pilsner and an elderflower drink.

We went there with our 7 month old son, so we were a bit worried that he would be noisy. But because of the bare walls and concrete floors the place was buzzing with noise from all the other tables so a squeal now and then from us did not get noticed.

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The food arrived in no time and we dug in. The steak was good, juicy and tender and came with a big pot of bearnaise sauce. I enjoyed the sauce; Ann found it a bit too sweet.

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The brisket sandwich came in two small homemade buns. The meat was really, really tender. This was served on a tray with baking paper and the coleslaw in a polystyrene cup. Thinking back this has a cheap, cafeteria feel to it but the food was good so we didn’t think about it at the time. The fries and coleslaw were good but nothing to rave about.

Our son got to try the two meats as well and he got a lot of enjoyment from the ribeye. The brisket was so tender that he could not manage to get much of it up to his mouth.

The beer I had was their pilsner on tap. However it did not taste like a pilsner at all – it was more like a wheat beer. I enjoyed it although I would think their bottled IPA goes better with this type of food. Ann loved the elderflower drink (and that’s her drink of choice…every.time. So that is praise indeed).

They also offered us a bottle of tap water and unlike any other restaurant in Sønderborg they do not charge for tap water.

Overall we really enjoyed it. We were in and out of there in hour which is good timing for us with the age of our kid. Without a kid we would have definitely stayed for longer. Due to the acoustics and the size of the place it is not a particularly romantic place, but I will definitely come back with a group of friends for a night of laughs, banter and good food.

Sønderborg Cycle Club is evil

The local road cycle club Sønderborg Cykel Klub (SCK) recently released a promotional video for the club and road cycling. The video is imitating a movie trailer with a deep voiced speaker and declarations like “The best bicycle club in the world”, “We are evil” and “We taler dansk”.

SCK offers cycling and competitive cycling for people of all ages (from 9 years old and up). The club’s aim is to create a team spirit and show that you can have fun while doing a competitive sport.

If you are interested you can join the weekly team training. If you are interested send an email to the chairman so he can let the trainers of the day know that a newcomer is joining. You can train with the club for while to try it out before you become a paying member. There is no requirement of being in a particular state of fitness in order to join, for instance can adults start training with the young adults in the beginning.

The club has some borrow-bicycles that people interested in the sport can borrow. Primarily the bikes are in sizes for 9-17 olds. In order to borrow a bike you need to pay a deposit and the worn parts (breaks, tires etc. need to be replaced).

To become a member sign up here.

The Sønderborg based production company Zoom Film is behind the film and it looks like parts of it is shot with a drone around Dybbøl Mølle and some parts on Kær Halvø.

Sønderborg’s new multicultural centre on the harbour

sonderborg multicultural house

One of the key buildings in Frank Gehry’s Masterplan for Sønderborg is the multicultural centre that will sit at a prominent location in Sonderborg with views of both the harbour and the historical city centre.

There were two architect companies that took part in the contest to design the future centre. It has now been decided by the municipality which submission is the winning bid. And from the pictures published I think it looks like a really nice project.

The winning proposal for the new multicultural centre on the waterfront is created in collaboration between AART Architects, Zeni Architects, Alectia and Hoffmann.

Sonderborg havnefront

The centre will be built around the old warehouse (Ewers pakhus) that is the only old building left on the harbour at the moment.

The lonely warehouse on the harbour

The warehouse in is a pretty bad state but I think that once it has been restored it will add character and charm to the brand new building and be a physical reminder of the times where the harbour of Sonderborg was a bustling industrial port.

The building will bring together under one roof several cultural institutions, and create a place where the focus is on learning as well as other cultural and recreational activities. The building will amongst other things house Sønderborg Library, The German Library and South Jutlands Artschool.

sonderborg library

The building will be 5500m2 and it is expected that 1000 people will use the building daily and the budget cost of the centre is almost 100 million kroner.

sonderborg cafe library

Rock and Roll Christmas from the tax minister

It is not everyday we see a Danish minister of government bring out the rock and roll guitar. But the current minister of tax, Benny Engelbrecht, loves to sing so he decided to create a Christmas greeting in the form of a music video with his hobby band “Benny and the True Taxmen”.

Benny Engelbrecht is from Adsbøl outside Gråsten and has played music for many years. After becoming minister he has also jumped on the stage, most recently in Gråsten at the Apple Festival.

Buying a house in Denmark

We have just completed the process of buying a house and have spent quite some time looking in to various aspects of property buying and owning in Denmark. This is a compilation of the things we have learned.

Most of the links in this article will unfortunately be to pages in Danish. I have not been able to find that much information in English.

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Where to look?

There are two good websites that collect more or less all houses for sale in Denmark. They both offer you the possibility to create a user profile and get alerts when houses matching your criteria come for sale. Neither has an English interface.

Boliga.dk is an independent site that collects data from the differentreal estate agents. Some of the good features about Boliga are:

  • Get email alerts to let you know when new houses are for sale in your area.
  • Get email alerts when houses on your watch list have an open house.
  • You can see what a house has been sold for previously and what the reduction in asking price is.
  • Houses sold by owner are only listed on Boliga not Boligsiden. Same goes for (very) few real estate agents.

Boligsiden.dk is owned by an association of real estate chains. Some of the good features of boligsiden are:

  • They get new listings a day before Boliga
  • You can limit your searches to an area you mark on the map
  • If you add a house to your “Huskeliste” (favorites) you can see how many other people have “fav’ed” it and how many people look at it.

Some of the interesting facts you can see on the sites are:

How to compare?

The mantra for real estate agent are location, location, location. But there is a couple of other things you can look at in your hunt.

Ask thereal estate agent of a house for the reports and they will send you at least four documents:

  • Sales Report (Salgesopstilling)
  • Building Survey (Tilstandsrapport)
  • Electricity Survey (Eleftersyn)
  • Energy Report (Energirapport)

These all follow the same standard for all houses so there will be a multitude of parameters which you can use in comparing two or more interesting houses. Here are some of the ones I would like to highlight.

Price per square meter

From the Sales Report you can see the price per m2. It is public data what the m2-price is in any area split by postcode. So by looking at the m2-price of a house you can get an idea of whether it is above or below the average for an area.

Condition of the property

The building survey will give an overview of the house comparable to its age. A surveyor will go through the house and check for visible faults and errors. The damages are rated according to this scale:

  • K0 = Cosmetic
  • K1 = Less serious damage
  • K2 = Serious damage
  • K3 = Critical damage

This does not tell you how expensive it will be to fix the error but how critical it is to maintain the property’s integrity. For instance, often bathrooms will have lose tiles (K1s or K2s) and outside wood on the house needs painting (K2s or K3s).

The electrical survey is done in a similar way.

Energy rating and costs

Denmark is a cold country and energy costs are a big part of having a house. All houses for sale have to have an energy rating done and you can use this to get an idea of what heating the house will cost you.

skala-energimaerk-byg-2013

The scale goes from A2020 where a 140m2 house costs 1800-3500dkk per year to heat up to G where a 140m2 house cost 26000-35000DKK per year. Compound that to 10-20 years of ownership and you can see that energy costs is a factor to consider.

Roughly speaking moving one step to the left of the scale is equal to a price increase of 800dkk per m2 according to research. If you make certain energy saving initiatives you can improve your energy rating and thereby lower your costs and improve the (potential) value of your house.

In the Sales Report you can see the current owners’ yearly cost of heating. This can vary greatly from the Energy Rating of the house as they might not heat parts of a house or have it colder or warmer than the norm.

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Find background information

More and more data in Denmark is getting digitized and the public sector is making good efforts to make it accessible for free. This is to your advantage as you can find a lot of things for free and some sites make it very easy to check things.

Dingeo is a fairly new but really interesting site. If you have an address it lets you find useful information about things like:

  • Radon level – This is on kommune level, so don’t panic. For Sønderobrg area the kommune is in a risk zone of Radon, so don’t sleep in the basement if you smoke – or measure the Radon if you do.
  • Ground pollution (Jordforurening) – What polluting businesses have been on the plot or vicinity in the past. The house might sit on top of an old landfill (as is the case with Møllegade in Sønderborg).
  • Risk of flooding (Oversvømmelsesrisiko) – Climate change has meant warmer and wetter climate in Denmark and that is probably only going to get worse. Avoid buying a house built in a place that used to be a bog or a meadow.
  • Traffic noise (Trafikstøj) – At the moment this feature can only be used in bigger cities but as the data gets better this may have an impact on house prices as air and noise pollution get more focus.
  • School rating (Skoler) – Grade averages (Karakter gns), parents net income (Bruttoindkomst) and absent rate (Gns. Fravær) might be used to give you an indication of the people in the neighborhood.

Tinglysning is the public record of who is the legal owner of a property. (Enter street, house number and post code to search). You can also see which mortgages or pledges there are on the property. So you can see how much the current owner put in a mortgage at the time they bought the house. You can compare that to the “Salgsopstilling” where it often says how much they still owe on a house.

Mortgage and costs

Today there are a multitude of ways to borrow money for a house in Denmark. So here is the simplified version. Image from RD.dk

80% of a loan can be made as a mortgage (Realkreditlån). The rest of the borrowed amount you either have to pay as a down payment or get a bank loan (banklån). Depending on your relation with your bank they will require you to make a down payment of somewhere around 5% of the borrowed amount.

The two main variety of loans are Fixed Rate Loans (Fastforrentet lån) or Adjustable Rate Mortgage (Rentetilpasset lån). What to choose depends on your risk profile, life choices and finances, so you need to talk to a professional for advice. To see what you could end up paying for different loan amounts try this Loan Calculator.

The traditional mortgage model in Denmark (PDF link) is well regulated by law so you are fairly protected as long as you pay your dues. There are four mortgage institutions in Denmark: Realkredit Danmark, Nykredit, BRFKredit, Nordea. All of them are now owned by banks and the prices are pretty much the same – here’s a price guide. You can’t bargain about the interest rate but if you let your other bank business follow your mortgage you can negotiate about fees.

For the bank loan bit it is all up to the bank to decide, so here the different banks will offer you different products and prices depending on how they evaluate your finances.

You get a tax discount of about 33% of the interest you pay on a mortgage per year. So if you borrow 2 million fixed at 2,5% for 30 years your monthly payment is 9500dkk before tax and 7680 dkk after tax.

The “bidding game”

It is quite common that there is a negotiation going on about the price of a house and unless you are buying in a red-hot market it is of great financial benefit for you to know what the market price is and how much to bargain for. The longer the house has been on the market the more likely it is that you can squeeze the price.

The good thing with the publicly available data on, for instance, Boliga is that you can see how other people have bargained. In Sonderborg at the moment houses sell for 6-10% lower than the asking price. (And the asking price might have already been reduced if the house didn’t sell quick) See Actual house sales and how much they were reduced in price.

Get professional help

Remember that the real estate agent is the “seller’s guy”. He is typically paid a percentage of the sale, so his interest is in creating a quick sale for the highest possible price.

The bank “advisor” is also not there for you but to make money on you and he can be paid a commission based on what loan you chose.

So do yourself a favour and either do a lot of research into the field or spend money on professional help. You only have to get professional help to sign the deed but the money is most likely well spent.

The advisors I would suggest you consider consulting are:

– A builder/carpenter or construction technical advisor (Byggeteknisk rådgiver) can help you asses the general condition of the house and which repairs you need to plan and what they might cost. The Building Survey covers some of these areas but it does not give you a complete picture of the house. If you have a local network you can also ask around for a reputable carpenter to see if they want to consult for you.

– A lawyer to write the deed but also to guide you through the legal implications of a house sale.

– An independent financial advisor who can help with financial overview and explain the different loan types, help you choose the right loan and negotiate with the bank.

Buying a house as a non-Dane

If you are not a Danish citizen there are special rules for buying a house.

In order to buy property in Denmark you need to be residing in Denmark (be in the country for at least 180 days a year). If you as a EU citizen live and work here this is just a checkbox on a form. If you are not from EU or you do not live here permanently you need a special permit from the Ministry of Justice.

If you do not comply with the rules you can be forced to sell your property. So if in doubt talk to a lawyer.

Costs of buying a house

These are some ball park figures of what the one time costs are to buy a house in Denmark:

  • Deposit: Minimum 5%-10% of the sales price
  • Notary of loans (Tinglysning) from 8,000dkk – 37,400dkk depending on current loans in house and cost of house.
  • Standard lawyer fee for writing the deed from 4,000 – 10,000dkk
  • Owner change insurance – 10,000 – 20,000dkk (optional but advisable)

The running costs depend on the house but they include:

  • House insurance
  • Utilities (Water, electricity, power)
  • Garbage removal
  • TV license
  • Property tax
  • Property value tax (for the kommune)

An example of different types of family budgets can be found here.

Updated 11/2/2017: Link to budget changed as old link was dead.