Rosie Collington is glad her days of renting are behind her. But she has only been able to fulfil her dream of homeownership after moving from the UK to Denmark . In 2018, the 31-year-old British academic moved from London to Copenhagen , a city which gave her the opportunity to say goodbye to landlords’ rent increases for ever.
Ms Collington has taken advantage of Denmark’s co-operative housing – known as andelsbolig – which has helped several generations of young people struggling with the cost of buying a home on the open market . Despite being an old-fashioned idea in Denmark, it is attracting attention from policy experts overseas in search of new ideas. One SNP branch has tabled a motion for this weekend’s party conference on Denmark’s co-operative system.
It is urging the Scottish Government to consider introducing a similar model as a way of addressing the crisis in affordable housing . People who buy an andelsbolig house, typically an apartment, buy a share in the co-operative running the building that is equal to the value of the property. The buyer goes to the bank to get a mortgage on the property in the same way as they would with open-market ownership.
However, the co-operative decides on the sale price of the property, and keeps the price below market values to protect the affordability of the home for future buyers. While small, limited increases in andelsbolig house prices are allowed, the amount depends on different formulas agreed by each co-ope.