Why is property so cheap in North Jutland?

21 comments

1. Supply and demand as always

2. It’s a downtrending spiral for what we call ‘udkantsdanmark’.

   The prices in those areas has just stagnated the last 20-30 years and hasn’t followed along with the rest of the market. They might look desirable to you, but it isn’t to your bank. Don’t be surprised if they’ll refuse a loan for a 500.000 house but qualify you for a 3 million loan on a house in say Aalborg, which is the closest mayor city to nord jutland.

3. Usually because it’s far away from important infrastructure, workplaces, schools, shopping opportunities. We call it “udkantsdanmark”, literally meaning “outskirts Denmark”

   Edit: also one hour is a lot to Danes. It’s a small country. Most people don’t want more than 40 minutes commute to their jobs, and even less for schools, shopping, etc.

4. It’s not that far from a small town with shops and school and such. But it probably has something to do with the location being outside a town with shops.

5. Schools and shops etc are having a hard time surviving in those areas so you might have to drive far to shops and get kids to school etc. A one hour drive is pretty far by danish standards. Many young people leaving home don’t want to live under those conditions or just can’t get a job in those areas, so they move away.

   But if you like to live a bit remote and can make it work with job, family and friends etc it’s a really good opportunity for a cheap house.

   When I retire the only thing that would prevent me from buying a cheap house in those areas, is the distance to family.

6. You see, Jutland bad.

   Love, Copenhagener.

7. The future is uncertain, schools are closing, jobs are centralising, hospitals and other public things you dont want to be too far from are “moving” to the larger cities. Aars is not that bad, but look at western northern Jutland, even busses are dissapearing, this means that settling there with children means you will have to drive them far to everything, the school in your town, might close before the children are old enough to attend, then you have to drive even further.

   No one really wants to move there because the uncertain future, the municipality needs to safe more money, they close more stuff, even fewer people come, rinse and repeat

8. …also taxes are probably lower for these houses from 2024 onwards.

   If you’re into a quiet lifestyle, enjoy good health and don’t mind driving for absolutely everything these places could be a gem for you. Buy cash – credit institutions aren’t fascinated by loaning you money too buy these houses – and you’ll pay zero rent including property taxes.

   But the prices still tells us that not many see it that way.

9. Supply and demand

10. Fundamentally, because there are more houses in that area than there are people who wish to live there. Why buy a house with a one hour drive to Aalborg when you can get one with a 30 minute drive.

11. It’s supply and demand.

    The houses are adequate and the local community is probably too. But the problem is, there are just other options that are more desireable and still affordable for people and as a result, there is little incentive for them to consider a place like Vognsild.

    Combine that with the fact that the population living in a place like Vognsild is aging (dying!) and you can have a mismatch where the supply of houses for sale is relatively big compared to the demand. And this pushes down the prices dramatically to find an equilibrium.

    If you pick up this house and drop it in a suburb in Aarhus, it will sell for 4 million or more.

    If you are content with living in the countryside and driving to get to bigger cities, then you have an opportunity to live really cheaply. However, don’t expect to make any profits when you attempt to re-sell the property in 20 years.

12. Few people want to live there, so the price is accordingly to that. Supply and demand as others say.

13. If you’re not already born and raised in Aars, there is rarely a reason to move to Vonsild. Nothing happens out there.

    Most people want to be closer to the bigger cities

14. 1 hour drive to Randers lol

15. There’s the distance argument, but I think it’s simpler than that. These things aren’t selling because Danes have been conditioned into seeing housing as an investment, rather than… you know, housing. And since these things don’t appreciate, there are no buyers, so they don’t appreciate.. and now you have a feedback loop. This exact same thing also makes it hard to get approved for a loan, so it’s mostly a cash-buyers only market – further strengthening the feedback loop.

    It makes sense that people think this way of course. Most danes probably all know several people who have turned into very, very wealthy people because they happened to buy a cheap flat or house in Copenhagen or Århus back in the 80s or 90s. Of course, housing doesn’t experience astronomical growth like that everywhere, or even in any somewhat frequent manner – but recency bias and all that.

16. In Belgium it is very normal to have long workdays and long transporttime. But in denmark people prefer to work as little as possible and they want to live very close to their job. It is so sad that perfektly fine houses a bit away from the big cities, are impossible to sell. Those smalltowns they die, cause they can’t attract enough young famillies. So the school is closed and the shops disappear.
    Danes say that it is because Denmark is a small country and they don’t want to travel much. But Belgium is half the size, and everyone is used to travel all the time. So that can’t be the reason.

17. 1. Most people work in larger cities, the nearest here would be Aalborg, that’s 1.5 to 2 hours of your day, every day, spent driving to work. You’ll probably need two cars for the family, which is expensive.
    2. No school for your kids, you’ll maybe need to drive them to school before going to work, more time spent commuting every day.
    3. Your kids want to visit friends or go to sports, well those things probably aren’t in your village, so you’ll spend time driving them around to that too.
    4. No shopping, again you need to drive to stores, more time spent driving.
    5. With how cheap housing in that area is, no one can afford to build new houses there, so you know the place will never grow.
    6. Do you ever want to move? Well you know it’s not a very popular place to live, so selling will probably be difficult.

    The small towns becoming less and less desirable to live in is sort of a self-sustaining cycle. People (or in some case the bank giving people loans) want their home to represent a good investment. Many want themselves, and maybe to a higher degree their kids, to have things to do in their town. We generally value our time highly, if you spend 2 hours commuting everyday that’s 2 hours a day you aren’t spending with your family.

18. These houses are not good speculation objects for the financial sector, so many banks don’t want to lend money to such purchases.

    Maybe they are afraid that the house prices will fall in that area in the future, maybe there are no buyers of the debt if they securitize the mortgage, or maybe the credit scores are low in the area… it’s hard to tell.

19. You are often stuck with the house for life if you buy it. At best you will be losing money if you can sell it again. This house is heated with wood pellets, so you will probably need to change that some in the near future. That’s a big investment for a “no value” home. It also has an energy rating of “E” (that’s bad). People that buy these cheap houses typically do not have money to renovate, so the house often stays in disrepair for decades.

20. Because you can’t get a job to pay for it.

21. Because we have been centralizing our country for 20 years and now there’s nothing left in those small towns, schools have closed, bus service has been degraded to a bare minimum, there’s often not even a super market.

    I grew up in a rural area and man is it boring when you’re a kid and there’s literally nothing to do and you can’t even take a bus on the weekend to see your friends.