ARRIVING IN DENMARK

Moving in:
When moving in to a rental home, the landlord will usually require the tenant to pay a deposit, the first month’s rent plus a pre-paid rent for one month.

Before move-in, an inspection should be conducted with both the tenant and (a representative of) the landlord present. Make sure that all defects and shortcomings of the room/flat/house are noted on the inspection report before signing it. Take pictures. ‍ ‍

Paying rent & consumption:
When renting a home in Denmark, rent is usually paid monthly and by bank transfer – not in cash.

Consumption (heat, electricity, water, gas) is separate from the rent. Often, heat and water are paid via the rent, to the landlord. This is called “aconto” and is a fixed amount, paid every month.
At the end of the fiscal year, the pre-paid amount will be compared with your actual consumption, meaning that you’ll either receive some money back or have to pay an extra amount – depending on your consumption.
Electricity and gas (if applicable) are usually paid directly to the supplier, by the tenant. You can read more about electricity, heat, water, and gas here.

Recycling:
In Denmark, waste sorting is taken very seriously. As a tenant (or owner), you are responsible for sorting your waste according to your municipality’s rules. Read what goes where here.

‍The municipality provides all citizens with trash bags for residual waste and, if applicable, bio waste. Please use these provided trash bags and sort your waste into the correct containers outside your building.

‍Containers for glass and batteries are placed at central locations in most neighbourhoods.

‍Bottles and cans with a deposit (“pant”) can be returned at all supermarkets.

‍If you need to get rid of larger items, you can drive them to a local recycling site (genbrugsplads) yourself or order a pick-up.

Little dictionary of waste management:

• Restaffald – residual waste

• Plast & metal – plastic & metal

• Blød plast – soft plastic / hård plast – rigid plastic

• Pap & papir – cardboard & paper

• Madaffald – food waste

• Haveaffald – garden waste/compost

• Tøj – clothes/textiles

• Farligt affald – haxardous waste

• Skraldespand – bin/trash can

• Genbrugsplads – recycling site

‍Moving out:
When moving out, a move-out inspection needs to be conducted with both the tenant and (a representative of) the landlord present. Here, the move-in report will be compared to the current state of the flat/house.
Tenant and landlord then agree on the defects etc. which need to be repaired and paid for by the current tenant. (Amount will be taken out of their deposit.)

Please note: It is common that rental properties are freshly painted or renovated to a greater extend in between tenants. This means two things:

• Usually, the move out date is 2 weeks prior to the end of the lease.

• Tenants often do not receive their full deposit back – regardless of whether larger repairs/renovations must be made or not. Tenants are entitled to receive a statement over the costs of the renovations done.

Most people find their rental flats or houses on online housing websites.  To find the respective websites, simply search for “lejeboliger Danmark” or “lejeboliger [your city]”. On these websites, you can choose to look for rooms, flats, or houses of different sizes.

There also are local Facebook groups, where free rooms and flats are shared. They are easy to find when searching for one or more of these terms:

• “lejeboliger”

• “ledige lejeboliger”

• “ledige boliger”

• “lejeboliger i [location]”

• “find bolig i [location]”

‍In bigger cities, Facebook groups targeting internationals or students are often a good source to find available flats and rooms.

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Useful words:

• Bolig – home

• Lejebolig – rental housing

• Væreslse – room

• Lejlighed – flat/apartment

• Rækkehus – semi-detached house

• Hus – house

• Kollegie – student/youth “dorm”

• Ungdomsbolig – youth housing (reserved for people under a certain age and/or in education)

• Bofæller – flat mate/roommate

• Bofællesskab – “housing community”

• Delevenlig – “sharing-friendly”, meaning a flat’s outline is well-suited for sharing it with roommates

• Ledig – available

‍You can find subsidised housing on DanmarkBolig.dk

‍You can find more information about renting in Denmark here.

You can find more information on student housing our pages dedicated to international students.

Housing Associations (almen boligorganisation/boligforening) are a big part of the rental housing market in Denmark. They are partially subsidised and (to some extent) protected from the price developments on the private housing market.

In order to get access to a flat or house owned by a housing association, you need to be signed up to that association’s waiting list.

For the more popular properties, these waiting lists can be very long. However, there are locations that are less popular, making them accessible for internationals, that have not had the chance to be on the waiting list for long.

There is a small fee for getting and staying on a waiting list.

To find the housing associations represented in your area, search for “almen boligorganisationer + [your city/region]” or search for subsidised housing here.