Affordable housing: Denmark's cooperative (andelsboliger) approach

What The Denmark | Danish Culture for Expats, Internationals and Danes

Around the world house prices are rising far higher than incomes meaning "ordinary people" are unable to afford to own a place to live.

In Denmark, andelsboliger ("co-operative housing") offers a solution.

With roots in the 1800s, it is an approach whereby people come together to collectively own a common asset (in this case a property, such as an apartment block) and then collectively reap the benefits.

In the episode, Sam and Josefine speak with Stefanie Høy Brink, curator and ethnographer at Copenhagen City Museum and Mikkel Høegh, housing economist at the danish bank, Jyske Bank.

The four discuss:

• The historical precedent of the cooperative movement, and how it was applied to housing
• How cooperative housing offers the ability to share resources with neighbours
• The technicalities of how the system works, and why prices can remain low

And ultimately how sustainable the system is, with its tension between self-interest for the owners of andelsboliger and the desire to maintain a system that is fair for future generations.

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This episode is sponsored by Talent to Denmark's "State of Denmark" campaign.

Denmark is actively looking to attract international talent to move to the country. If you're interested to learn more about jobs in (one of) the happiest countries in the world, head to www.state-of-denmark.com/wtd

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