SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE

NOGEN DER KENDER NOGEN – SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE

By Laura Ringo

SOMETHING IS WRONG in Denmark, and it’s all about the housing market.

MY PARENTS LIVE on a disused farm on Falster, in a property of 124 square metres approved for residential use, plus a few bits and pieces and some land that could be sold for less than what I paid for my co-operative flat on Amager. A flat of 42 square metres.

MORE AND MORE people want to live in the cities, and out in the countryside house prices are falling whilst schools are closing. The rich are getting richer, and those on benefits are now so poor that they cannot afford a council flat in Copenhagen. And every year at the start of the academic year, we have the same drama when a whole cohort of new students are left without a roof over their heads. It’s all about knowing someone who knows someone – unless, of course, your parents can afford to pay.

THIS IS A story about how developments in the housing market have affected my life. My friends’ lives. My family’s. And probably yours too.