Do you have to be a millionaire to buy/rent a house in a place like that? The main questions are: How expensive it could be? Is there a problem to find a free land (in places like that) where you can build your own house? Does it mean that it’s gonna be big problem to get to work from there?

39 comments

  1. Places like these are actually on the cheaper side, as there is no jobs close by.

    And most like there is a law that states if you buy it, you have to live in it as your main home.

  2. Places like these are generally cheap. The most expensive houses are in major cities (and in somewhat smaller cities and towns around Oslo), while the most expensive holiday homes are along the Oslo fjord and further down towards the southern coast. Some holiday homes in the mountains, often near ski resorts, are often also expensive. Quite a few municipalities are tired of just being a location for holiday homes and require you to actually live in the house.

    Either way, houses like the one on the photo are usually not expensive at all. They are far from major population centers, with few professional jobs available. Internet access is available more or less everywhere, though some places have to resort to 4G (unlimited use, of course) at a fixed monthly rate, so if you can work 100% remotely and prefer living in a highly rural area it’s an option. But it’s far away from everything, and these photos are from days with pleasant weather.

  3. Rule of thumb in Norway regarding prices. Further away from any city is cheaper, closer to the city makes it more expensive. Further into the farmlands or wilderness makes it cheaper as well.

  6. Buying a house, yes. Building a house, no. You generally won’t get a loan to build a house in a remote place, as the building materials currently are expensive, and the price to build a house in such a location is higher than the cost of the finished house would be, giving the banks a non-covering guarantee for their loan.

  7. Millionaire (in USD) to buy a house like pictured? No. They are fairly cheap.

    Exact prices: [www.finn.no](https://www.finn.no)

    Free land (tomter): depends a bit. Some large land areas are often owned by the local farmers, and they might be willing to sell a plot. However, getting utilities connected to it might be costly.

    Work: Yeah, unless you work remotely, not much work in nowhere-fjord.

    PS: A lot of these fjords have pretty crappy weather, hense these pictures are a bit misleading, as they are taken on the few nice weather days they have each year.

  9. You’ll find something like this for a good price, somewhere in north of Norway. Maybe Senja? My dad lived there for 5 years. But he’s a musician, so he works from home. Maybe you can get job as a fisherman or something?

  12. Where is that BTW?

    I saw some amazing places on the island of Andørja and lofoten … part of me would love to live there , I can 100% work remotely …

  13. Id just like to add, they are cheap to buy but extremely expensive to upkeep and A LOT of work on the houses are required as well, as the houses are old and often neglected for quite some time. If you are not the kind of person to constantly do work around the house after you have finished your day job i would not recommend a place like this.

  14. My parents just bought a house with amazing views right by the ocean in Lofoten.
    It was really cheap but needed a lot of work.
    Technically the rules say you have to live there to own it, but they applied for an exemption to use it as a holiday home. It was granted on the basis that there are no jobs there and there are only two houses that are occupied year round and the people living there are retired. It would probably remain unsold and sit around and decay unless they granted it.

    If you have a fast boat you can get to a town in 25min-1h depending on weather.
    If you drive you need to drive for 5-10min to get a ferry that during the winter only runs twice a day and only on demand (15-20min), and then drive for 1h10m to get to the same town.

  16. I see alot of people saying places like this dont have alot of jobs around, and that might be mostly true, but there are some places that have this type of scenery and still have a fair amount of jobs not too far away, but you’ll need a car.

  17. Oh my, reading through your comments here, OP, you have some research to do my friend.
    There are reasons, those places have bargain prices in one of the richest countries on earth.
    If you think you can outsmart the system (without having ever lived in Norway before) you are in for some serious life lessons.
    You think you are the only person in the North enjoying a nice romantic view?
    This one is for free: if it seems to good to be true, most likely it is…

  18. i think one common misconception is that you have to move to a house like that, far up north to experience nature and views. the reality is that in norway you don’t really need that. most norwegians live in a normal town/city and go to these places during the weekend. many of them own holiday homes in the nature and there is also a really good hiking association, that operates 500+ cabins through the country. this picture might look extraordinary for a continental european but what you see here is not that uncommon in norway. basically the whole coastline looks something like that, and trust me, norway has pretty long coastline. so these places are very accessible for the average citizen. you don’t have to buy a home 1000km from civilization to have easy access to a place like that, basically every weekend.

  20. The expenses of living there is what you should consider, the house is most likely cheap compared to suburban areas

  21. Mind you, that picture was taken that one weekend that year that had sunny weather and temperature above 15 degrees C.

  22. You need to be a multi millionaire to buy anywhere. The more affordable is far from work so get ready to travel a hour or 2 to work and multi zone tickets.

  26. There is no free lunch.

    While we were remodeling our house, we stayed at our cabin. With the 40 min ferry ride, it took 60-90 minutes to get to work- each day.

    We paid about 5000kr in ferry costs and 1500kr in road tolls each month- plus around 2000kr in diesel. That is an extra 8500kr / mo ‘surcharge’ for living where homes are cheaper. Paying an extra 8500 towards a mortgage would go a long way.

    If you live in the middle of nowhere, good luck with school for the kids.

  29. We rent an old house near the fjord for 5500kr pr month, without electricity and internet included. 2,5 bedrooms, 1 bathroom with a bathtub, sink, toilet and washing machine, and 1 with a toilet and a sink, kitchen, living room, dining room and a balcony

  32. Choose 2 of the following:
    – Central enough to have a chance to get a job at all
    – Under 10 mill nok
    – A view like in the photo

    If you work online and get internet access, I guess you can manage tho..

  33. Not at all…. You can get Houses in beautiful landscapes like this for 100-500k usd. Many are on the lower side of that scale. And about 600-1500usd a month to rent…
    It all depends on where it is… And if you can work remote that opens up even more options.

    Around the big city`s and popular areas it can go alot higher though. It´s quite normal for a house to go between 1-2 million USD in Oslo.
    There are even houses and cabins sold in the 2-7million usd in the popular city`s and recreational areas (Kragerø, Tjøme, Geilo, Hvaler)

  34. the answer is yes, no and maybe….

    a lot of these farms come under LNF which makes it different from regular home. you have obligations to cultivate the land, and the building rules are similar to “Listed building” you can’t make many changes to the outside of house, windows and so on and so forth.

    a lot of these farms also have dodgy laws thar let family’s of people who lived in that farm can for 20 years force you to sell it back to them at the price you paid for it, or cheaper, its a legal minefield that very much stacked against you.

    there cheaper because you have to actually farm the areas, and cultivate the land, it one reasons it cheaper. also they tend to be far from commuting distance.

    also its rural Norway, so if your a non Norwegian expect to be an outsider and unwelcome. think of it like buying a house in a full on redneck area. many don’t take kindly to strangers.

  36. A lot of areas are insanely strict about giving out building permits that close to the shoreline so in some sense it can be easier/safer (and certainly faster) to purchase and potentially renovate something that’s already standing in a great location.

  37. Don’t expect much infrastructure. Don’t expect water, sanitation, sewage, heating, electricity, internet

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