Cooperative housing ('Andelsbolig')
Cooperative housing, also known as shared housing, is a cross between owning and renting. In a cooperative agreement, the owner buys the right to live in a building but does not actually own the building. The right to live in the building is paid for by the purchase of an amount of shares. The price of these shares is based on a public assessment, an assessment by the tax authority (SKAT), or is an assessment by a private valuer.
A cooperative belongs to a tenant-owner association. Typically, in large cities, this will be an entire estate, or, in rural areas, it could be a single settlement. In most housing associations you will have to sign up to a waiting list. You may sublet your apartment, but only for a limited period of time. In many housing cooperatives, the members stipulate a residence requirement, which means that you must live at your registered address in the cooperative.
Read more about
cooperative private housing on the website of ABF.
As with rented accommodation there are rules and regulations that apply to cooperative housing. Read some of the main rules in the Ministry of Integration's publication 'Citizen in Denmark'.
It is important to ensure your home and valuables. However, this is not a requirement. Read more about insurance.
Searching for housing
Unfortunately, as is the case with private housing, most websites that can help you find cooperative housing are in Danish. Therefore you might find our 'home hunting dictionary' useful. It gives you a overview of the most common words that you will encounter on these websites. See dictionary.
Here is a list of some of the websites available to search for cooperative housing: