Social housing will form 40% of future urban development in Copenhagen

This was decided after an unprecedented agreement between the national and city governments

Earlier today, the Danish Ministry of Interior and Housing announced the signing of a pioneering cooperation agreement with the City of Copenhagen that will ensure more affordable housing in the capital. In fact, the agreement stipulates that future residential development will have to ensure that 40% of the housing stock will be public.

The move has been described as a first for the Nordic country. It seeks to address the long-standing issues of housing shortage, especially for vulnerable groups, such as students, young families and the homeless.

Mixed housing city

The cooperation must ensure that the initiatives from an earlier housing agreement from November 2021, called 'Fund for mixed cities - more affordable housing and a way out of homelessness', will become a reality.

As part of the housing agreement, DKK 10 billion (about 1.34 billion euros) were allocated to the Mixed Cities Fund. Among other things, it is with the help of this fund that the share of new public housing will be raised to 40 percent in the urban development areas by the year 2031.

"In many ways, this is a historic agreement that we have entered into. 40% public housing means that the urban development areas will not only be for those with the big wallet. For me, it is a goal that we can offer our own children, who were born and raised here in Copenhagen, a place to live,” stated Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.

She concluded: “Now we can offer housing for the apprentice or the student coming from outside, whose biggest dream is to live and work in Copenhagen. And we can offer our most vulnerable extra affordable housing. The agreement means that for many years to come, the development of Copenhagen will be more equal and more green.”