So we’ve just started the next part of our life journey, our
relocation to a new job, a new city, new culture and new life. It seems like just the other day that this
all seemed like a pipedream, something that we’d talked incessantly about but
never actioned. When my husband said
that everything would happen quickly, once the ball was rolling, he wasn’t
exaggerating!
He’s just taken a new role with the company he’s worked for
in Ireland for the past eight years and we are moving with our children from our
warm family home in which we’ve lived since we got married.
Coming from a relatively expensive country, Ireland, we
thought that property prices in Denmark would not be too much of a shock. I travelled over to Copenhagen for two days
to do a property search with my husband, leaving the two kids at home.
We had seven properties to view and there were a couple of
important factors to consider.
Our daughter will attend Copenhagen International School and
my husband will work in Soborg so we needed to be close to both locations. Having a seven and a two year old, space was
extremely high on our wanted list. The
house also had to be comfortable and safe, with more than one bathroom.
We started with Hellerup, close to the school and very
commutable to the office in Soborg. The
house was within our budget and we were feeling positive. When we arrived however, there was a very
good explanation for the price! The
house was quite run down with old windows and doors, very cold and very
uneconomical. We were very disappointed.
Moving on to Lyngby, we found a beautiful house, in the
process of being renovated. It was
pretty large, open plan, all on one level and with two bathrooms. I was delighted! However, we felt that the location was less
than ideal for our circumstances.
We then moved on to a house in Rungsted. I was ecstatic! It was an amazing house, absolutely huge,
very family friendly, right by a forest and all on one level. I wanted it from the moment I saw it,
however, it was way outside the region we needed for travel to the school and
the office.
We viewed a couple of other houses that were completely
unsuitable, lots with basements that were suitable for storage, but not for
living space – I understand that there is a law that says that rooms below
ground level cannot be used for living, but it is a pity to leave such space
unused. There was also a house that
looked amazing when we first arrived, but the only bathroom had a bathtub in
which you had to sit up and was therefore completely impractical for our needs.
Unfortunately, the most beautiful houses were often in
terrible locations for us, and the most rundown houses were in the best
locations. There was always going to
have to be a compromise.
We eventually found a house in Soburg that suited us
well. Although I didn’t like it half as
much as the house in Rungsted, it was in a great location and was a nice
house. We made an offer and waited nervously
for a response.
We didn’t have any other options for viewing on the second
day, as there was a distinct lack of properties available, so I conducted some
further searches.
To live in the area around CIS, we would need to have raised
our budget to around 38000DKK per month!
That is over €5000! We were
astounded by the costs. To make it
worse, we would have to pay very high Electricity, Water and Gas charges.
We had been told that the cost of living was estimated to be
+12%, however, the rents here are more than 100% more expensive than in
Dublin.
We eventually got feedback from the house that we had made
an offer on. We were not
successful. It was hugely
frustrating. We were running out of time
to search for a new property and it seemed that good rental property was in
high demand and low supply.
Going back through the properties we had seen, we decided to
revisit the house in Lyngby. My husband
drove out to Lyngby very early one morning and commuted to the office from the
house to test the practicality of the property.
It took twelve minutes, so we decided that we would make an offer there.
Our offer was accepted and thankfully we will have our
property delivered there later this month, with the view to moving in on
January 1st.
However, the other big surprise was the deposit required to
secure the property. In Ireland, one
month’s deposit plus a month up front is the standard amount required on a
rental property. In Denmark, not only
was rent over 100% more expensive, but three month’s deposit and one month’s
rent was required within seven days of an offer being accepted on the
property! In our case, we had to
transfer over €10000 to the agent.
Another huge difference is the internal maintenance
costs. In Dublin, the landlord is
responsible for the maintenance of the property, including all painting and
redecorating. If there is damage done to
a property by a tenant, the landlord can use the deposit to repair the
damage. Normal wear and tear to a
property is expected, however, and a landlord will typically repaint a property
between tenants. However, in Denmark we
were shocked to discover that we could take a house either ‘as seen’ in which
case the house is returned the way it was found, or ‘newly painted’, which
means that it must be returned repainted.
This sounds fine in theory, until it is revealed that the painting must
be carried out by a registered company and that wages are very high in this
industry. Shockingly, it could cost
anywhere from €10000 to €40000 to repaint a house, depending on the size!
The cost of living difference has been the most difficult
thing for us to come to terms with and the property market is difficult to
negotiate. Thankfully we had an agent to
help us avoid too many nasty surprises!
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