How can a city be both expensive and affordable at the same time? Copenhagen may have the answer

The alternative is called cooperative housing, and that’s how 37-year-old physiotherapist in the eldercare in Copenhagen, Oskar Sällström, lives with his wife.

To get an apartment in cooperative housing they were on 40 different waiting lists for seven months. One waiting list cost 250 DKK pr year.

They also considered moving out of the city, where they could get a house for the same money as a small apartment in Copenhagen.

“We only stayed in the city because we got an apartment in cooperative housing.” 

Says Oskar Sällström. 

Solution towards High Housing Prices in Denmark

A report from the Danish National Bank from 2025 says that housing prices in Copenhagen have been growing around 20% in the past year.

On the other hand, a 2025 report from Rockwool Fonden says that despite the high prices, there is no significant decline in number of welfare workers that live in Copenhagen in the past 10 to 15 years. The report also shows that 68-81% of all welfare workers working in Copenhagen still live in Copenhagen. 

In Denmark, cooperative housing is another way to own an apartment, especially in Copenhagen, where 33% of homes are cooperative housing and owner-occupied homes only account for 18%, the rest consists of public housing and private renting, which is also popular models for welfare-workers and other members of the working class. 

How welfare workers survive in Copenhagen 

Skyrocketing housing prices in Copenhagen increases people incentives to move out of the city, according to the report from The Danish National Bank. 

Contrastingly, the report from Rockwool Fonden said that there is no significant exodus of welfare workers from Copenhagen. For example, in 2022 there were 78% of teachers, 77% of pedagogues and 81% of helpers who live in the city. 

The housing models in Copenhagen can help welfare workers from being priced out by the soaring costs of owner-occupied homes. 

A fraction of the full picture 

When you mention Copenhagen, many people think of it as a European capital with expensive housing. But that is not the whole story. 

What many people don’t know, is that Copenhagen has other housing models than just the standard owner-occupied and public and private renting. 

‘The narrative of Copenhagen now is, that it’s only for very affluent people, which I think it is wrong.” 

Says Rasmus Landersø, Research Professor in Rockwool Fonden. 

A long history of cooperative housing 

Cooperative housing started in Copenhagen in the early 20th century and has been one of the most popular ways of housing in the city ever since.

It started as a reaction to the terrible housing situation in Copenhagen at the time, and it is one of the reasons why Copenhagen is still affordable today. 

The cooperative housing model itself does not only exist in Copenhagen, but the way it works in Scandinavia and especially in Denmark sets it apart and is very efficient at keeping the prices down.

Shared affordability

In Danish it’s called “andelsforening”, directly translated it means shared association – like owning a share, and that is exactly what it is.

An andelsforening buys a building and then all the people living there buy a share to get an apartment, meaning that they then own it together.

Prices are regulated through The Cooperative Housing Act where they are subject to maximum price regulation and are therefore cheaper than similar owner-occupied homes.

In the regulation it says, that when trading in cooperative housing the price may not exceed the value of the housing’s share in the association's assets in the building. This is what keeps the prices down.

Not on the market 

What is special about the cooperative housing is that the apartments very rarely become publicly for sale since they have internal waiting lists.

That is why, when you look on the Copenhagen housing market from the outside it just looks expensive, because these apartments are not for sale the same way as owner-occupied homes. This creates a case of affordability vs accessibility.

“There are downsides to everything, right? And then, I guess, each kind of dimension also introduces some inequalities, too.”

Says Rasmus Landersø. 

According to him, the cooperative housing system is good, but it also has its own flaws creating another kind of inequality such as long waiting lists and a market you can only access if you know someone who can get you on the list.

Pay and wait

Oskar Sällström and his wife didn't know anyone in Copenhagen, they just signed up for as many waiting lists as possible and hoped for the best, and in their case it worked. 

Seven months is not a long time to wait in Copenhagen, but 10.000 DKK is the price they payed to get the chance at an affordable apartment, and some would say that’s expensive. This goes to show, that you don’t need to know someone who can help you get into the market, even though it helps and might have saved Oskar and his wife some money. 

For Oskar and his wife, it was worth it compared to what an owner occupied appartement would have cost and what they gave for the one they have now in cooperative housing, and it’s also the reason why they can afford to live and work in the city like many other welfare-workers.

The article is intended for audiences in the US and could be published in The New York Times.