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LIVING IN DENMARK

‘Amazing nature… reliable transport’: The best Copenhagen commuter towns

Finding somewhere affordable to live in Denmark's capital is not easy, which is why a lot of people consider moving out of the city to rent or buy. The Local readers gave us an insight into life in a commuter town.

'Amazing nature... reliable transport': The best Copenhagen commuter towns
Køge Bay, near the town of Køge, south of Copenhagen. An area popular for commuters to Copenhagen. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

With the increase in flexible working, more people are looking to smaller towns outside of Copenhagen to either work from home or commute from. Here are some of the popular commuter towns.

Kokkedal/Fredensborg (north of Copenhagen)

From our reader survey, Kokkedal/Fredensborg were the most popular areas people lived.

“We can have a big house with a garden for the kids compared to a small flat in Copenhagen,” one reader said. 

“Houses are affordable for North Zealand compared to Lyngby, Birkerød or Holte for example,” added Judy, another reader. “Not a lot of apartments or rentals available though.”

She said she loved the “amazing nature” of the area, as well as the safety, community spirit and fact it was close to amenities and Hillerød.

The commute however is not the quickest of the commuter towns.

“On the days I work in town it costs 52 kroner each way, I need to get a bus or walk to Kokkedal then the train and then a bus or walk to work so it takes up to 1.5 hours,” said one reader. 

Judy agreed that it normally took her an hour and a half to get to Copenhagen’s central station. She said that the “cost can be reduced by using a pendelkort and there is a tax deduction for long distance commutes.” However another reader in the area said it took them 30 minutes to get to Copenhagen central.

The worst part about living in the area, Judy said, was that “local trains and buses only run once an hour on weekends”.

“If you don’t have a car, it’s a pain.”

Another reader complained that “the restaurant scene is not great” and that the “general access to culture” was limited, although the Louisiana Art Gallery, they said, was “not far away”. 

What Judy loved about the area was “amazing nature. Safety. Close to amenities. Community spirit. Houses are more affordable than similar areas like Birkerød. Three stops from Hillerød station. by train. There are also buses to towns on the kystbanen line.”

Kokkedal station. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The north of Copenhagen is a popular choice for commuters, due to the area’s many beaches and the good train links to the centre of Copenhagen.

Other popular commuter towns are Hillerød, Holte, Bikerød, Rungsted and Hørsholm. 

Vedbæk (north of Copenhagen)

A few kilometres south of Kokkedal but still north of Copenhagen, Vedbæk, reported our reader Ron, offers “small town life” where “nearly everyone knows each other”.

The wealthy coastal town, he said, “has everything we need, with easy train access to the Copenhagen on the Regionaltog.” In addition, the commute is “very reliable”, taking only 20 minutes on the train to Nørreport.

The downside, he said, was that housing in the area was very expensive. “It’s probably even more expensive in Vedbæk than in Copenhagen!”

The coastal town of Vedbæk is perfect for commuting. Photo: Tobias Kobborg/Ritzau Scanpix

Frederiksund (north of Copenhagen) 

A bit further out from Copenhagen to the northeast is Frederikssund, which our reader complained suffered from a “lack of culture”, a “paucity of good restaurants”, a pedestrian street facing some sort of “death”, and a shopping centre which was “hugely dull”. 

The only things he mentioned in the town’s favour were that is close to the Roskilde fjord, the Isefjord and to nature in general, and that it was less expensive for “a quality house with a good garden” than Copenhagen.

He said the commute to Copenhagen Central took between 45 and 50 minutes, but warned that “‘reliable’ is not a word that can easily be used in a sentence about the C line trains”. 

Stenløse (west of Copenhagen)

To the west of Copenhagen, in Stenløse, housing costs are “much much lower” than the capital, according to one reader. They liked the “house prices, quiet, facilities, nature” and fact it was “still close to the city (36 minutes by train to go to Copenhagen Central).”

However they pointed out there are “only a few restaurants” and “a car is somewhat important.” 

The reader mostly worked from home but their commute involved cycling to the station then taking the S-tog to Copenhagen central station and another bike ride of a few minutes. “It takes about 40 minutes. Train is pretty reliable and runs every 10 minutes during the weekdays,” the reader said.

Other popular commuter areas in the west include Roskilde, Ringsted and Slagelse.

Køge (south of Copenhagen)

To the south of Copenhagen and on the coast, Køge was described by a reader as “quieter” and “cleaner” than Copenhagen, with no real negatives. 

“It’s a lot cheaper. I pay around 3,000 kroner for a single room student accommodation – two of my friends that live in Copenhagen pay 7,000 kroner a month – for a student apartment smaller than mine!” the reader said.

Their commute is “30 – 50 minutes depending on transportation mode (S-tog and regionaltog) – it costs around 650 kr a month with Ungdomskort.”

Dragør is another favourite to the south of Copenhagen due to its old-town charm.

The view across the straits to Nykobing Falster. Photo: Hubertus45/Wikimedia Commons

Nykøbing F (southern Denmark)

Nykøbing F, as it’s known, is a city on the island of Falster in southern Denmark, next to Lolland. Despite being further afield, Matthew found his commute “easy and reasonable” and house prices “much less” than in Copenhagen. He found the area he lives “peaceful” and “beautiful” with nothing he doesn’t like.

Odense (Fyn)

As the third largest city in Denmark, on the island of Fyn, Odense may feel far from Copenhagen. But reader Adrian said his commute to Copenhagen by train took “just over an hour. In a quiet carriage it’s relaxing and a great place to get work done.”

Adrian said house prices in Odense were at least half the cost of those in Copenhagen. “Cheaper housing, easy parking everywhere. Odense is a city with a small town vibe,” he said. The only minor point he said was the “lack of ‘cool’ cafes compared to Copenhagen.”

It’s says something about transport in Denmark that commuting from a different island 300km away can take the same time as commuting from a village just 40km north of Copenhagen. 

Some commuters even travel from Malmö in Sweden, taking advantage of the the fast train over the Øresund Bridge.

Do you have experience of living in a Copenhagen commuter town or village? We’re still interested in collecting readers’ experience of the different options. So if you want to contribute, please fill in the form below: 

 

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WORKING IN DENMARK

Why is Denmark not part of EU’s new job scheme for non-EU workers?

An EU Talent Pool platform, in which non-EU nationals can register their profiles and find jobs across the union’s member states, has moved a step closer to reality but Denmark will not be involved in the scheme.

Why is Denmark not part of EU's new job scheme for non-EU workers?

At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU Council, which includes representatives of each of the 27 member states, agreed a joint position on the proposal, referred to as “Tinder for jobs” by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. 

The Council will now begin negotiating with the European Parliament to agree on the final legislative text on the proposal, which is part of the EU’s broader skills and talent mobility package. 

What’s the scheme?

The Talent Pool will be a voluntary platform, to which EU member states can sign up, and where jobseekers from outside the EU will be able to look for jobs and employers within the EU will be able to list job vacancies.  

The Talent Parterships will be tailor-made agreements with countries outside the EU, which will help encourage those countries’ citizens to come to EU countries to work or study, with training provided within the non-EU country to prepare workers for EU jobs. 

“This will not replace anything but it will be an additional tool to make recruitment from outside the EU easier,” Johannes Kleis, a press officer at the European Council, recently told The Local. “It should help to overcome some barriers that employers might find if they look for staff outside the EU, and this portal will be an easier entry point for third country jobseekers.” 

Why isn’t Denmark part of it?

“Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of this Regulation and is not bound by it or subject to its application,” the formal proposal for the EU Talent Pool states.

The opt-outs obtained by Denmark under the EU’s Protocol 22 allow the Nordic nation to do this, the proposal notes.

It also notes that Ireland has a similar opt-out, but unlike Denmark has notified the EU of its wish to take part.

Denmark has a longstanding labour shortage and campaigns by business organisations for the government to remedy this by allowing more international labour are almost as longstanding.

An analysis from the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) earlier this year stated that, between 2013 and 2023, the number of foreign nationals working full-time in paid employment in Denmark increased from 147,000 to 309,000.

As such, increasing employment in Denmark in recent years is due in no small part to international labour, and the high rate of international employment, couple with a continued low unemployment rate, underline the need for workers from abroad, DI argued as it released the analysis. However, a large proportion of this international labour is sourced from within the EU.

READ ALSO: Foreign workers in Denmark ‘create 300 billion kroner of value’

Is there any likelihood of this changing?

The coalition government does not be ready to make huge changes on non-EU labour, although DI has spoken in favour of it.

“A simple and effective measure would be to also allow foreigners from outside of the EU to come here if they have a job offer in line with collective bargaining agreements. That would make an immediate difference,”  DI’s deputy director Steen Nielsen said in connection with its analysis on the number of foreigner on the labour market.

Denmark’s salary and other labour standards are set by its collective bargaining system.

The business representative underlined that such workers should not be allowed to stay in Denmark if their work circumstances ceased.

Last autumn, Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said that talk of seeking agreements with non-EU countries on the area, as well as easing existing rules, was not in line with the immigration policy followed by the Social Democrats.

Social Democratic policies on labour and immigration are closely related, she said in an interview.

“I think they are related when you start talking about, for example, 50,000 [people] from Kenya. Then we certainly must look not only at what it what do for the place of work those people are taken into, but very much also what it would do to society as a whole,” she said, citing a figure given by the Danish Chamber of Commerce in a September 2023 proposal for raising Denmark’s international workforce.

Since then, the government has agreed a deal allowing non-EU labour in a specific sector where it considers needs most urgent –health and social care – but this is being done through national legislation and not an EU scheme.

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