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PROPERTY

Danish court rejects tenants’ discrimination appeal against eviction

Residents of a social housing area in Danish town Helsingør whose tenancies were revoked have lost an appeal against the decision at a high court.

Danish court rejects tenants’ discrimination appeal against eviction
A file photo of the Nøjsomhed housing blocks in the town of Helsingør. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix

The Østre Landsret high court on Monday upheld an earlier district court ruling that the residents were not the subject of discrimination when they were evicted from their housing under the terms of Denmark’s 2018 “Ghetto Law”.

Under the law, underprivileged areas with a high “non-Western” population must implement redevelopment plans if they fulfil a number of social criteria.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on ‘non-Western’ neighbourhoods

The neighbourhood in which the residents lived, Nøjsomhed, was in 2018 included on the government’s list of parallel societies – then referred to as the “ghetto list”. The housing association responsible for the social housing, Boliggården, subsequently drew up a redevelopment plan in 2019.

As part of that plan, Boliggården in January 2020 advised residents in seven housing blocks that they would be required to move out, making way for extensive renovations.

The housing association’s leadership has denied that it intentionally targeted the ethnic background of its residents and said that the objective of the plan was to change the profile of residents in the area by attracting new tenants who are in full time work.

The high court ruled on cases related to seven evicted tenants amongst around 100 families who were instructed to leave Nøjsomhed.

The residents have already moved to temporary housing and two have been permanently rehoused, news wire Ritzau writes.

Monday’s verdict appears to end hopes any of the residents had of returning to their former homes.

In the case, the court was required to address whether the redevelopment plan and the selection of the specific blocks for renovation was a form of direct or indirect discrimination based on the ethnicity of the residents.

Of the three judges in the case, two found it not proven that the residents were evicted based on “an assessment of their ethnicity”. One judge did find this to be the case.

However, all three judges agreed that the term “immigrants and descendants from non-Western countries” (Danish: indvandrere og efterkommere fra ikke vestlige lande, ed.) does not refer to a group of people with the same ethnic background.

As such, the decision by the housing association was found not to be in breach of laws against racial discrimination, which address discrimination of persons of a specified “ethnic origin”.

The “Ghetto Law”, passed by the previous centre-right coalition government and continued by the current Social Democratic administration, includes several measures intended to combat what are considered to be parallel societies in underprivileged neighbourhoods.

The neighbourhoods were formerly officially termed “ghettos”, but this wording has now been scrapped.

To qualify as ‘parallel societies’, housing areas of more than 1,000 people, where more than half are of “non-Western” origin, must fulfil two of four criteria.

Areas that fulfilled the criteria are then required to take measures to combat parallel societies under the 2018 law.

The four criteria are: more than 40 percent of residents are unemployed; more than 60 percent of 39-50 year-olds do not have an upper secondary education; crime rates three times higher than the national average; residents have a gross income 55 percent lower than the regional average.

In addition to redevelopment obligations, areas on the list can be subjected to special treatment under the law, including stricter punishments for specified crimes and a requirement for small children to attend daycare.

Nøjsomhed is no longer on the government list. It was removed in December 2021 after its number of residents fell below 1,000.

The former residents have the option of applying to appeal the decision at the Danish Supreme Court (Højesteret).

The Helsingør case is the first of its kind to reach the Danish court system, but comparable protests have occurred in other underprivileged areas encompassed by the parallel societies law, including neighbourhoods in Copenhagen and Odense.

READ ALSO: Danish government reduces number of areas officially termed ‘ghetto’

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PROPERTY

What has happened to Denmark’s housing market so far in 2024?

A drop in the price of apartments in Copenhagen and stable house price trends were among the features of the Danish property market during the early months of 2024.

What has happened to Denmark’s housing market so far in 2024?

House prices for both detached (villaer) and semi-detached or terraced (rækkehus) housing fell by 0.2 percent in terms of the price per square metre in the first quarter of this year, new data from specialist media Boligsiden show.

Effectively, this means house prices were unchanged in the first part of this year compared to the end of 2023, the property media said in a press release.

Stable house prices makes a substantial – if lower than forecast – drop in the cost of apartments in Copenhagen the key takeaway from property market data from the first quarter of this year.

Privately-owned apartments in the Greater Copenhagen were 2.3 percent cheaper in the first three months of this year compared to the preceding quarter.

“In the past, we have seen a price increase from the fourth quarter of the year gone by to the first quarter of the new year. That is explained by the housing market often taking a break during the winter months and activity then increasing when spring arrives,” Boligsiden’s economist and head of communications Birgit Daetz said in the press release.

“But that trend does not apply in the same way this year,” she noted.

READ ALSO: Denmark has highest number of houses put on market since 2008

It is in particular the introduction of a new property tax on January 1st 2024 that has disrupted trends usually seen on the market, she said.

“The new property tax rules took effect at the new year and that change has given some skews on the housing market, especially in areas of the country where property taxes have now increased,” she explained.

A high activity at the end of 2023 in affected areas – notably Copenhagen’s apartment market – was followed by a quiet spell after the new rules kicked in for this reason, she said.

Because of the nature of the new rules, apartments in cities are most likely to see higher property taxes for new owner from 2024 onwards, whereas other types and locations are less likely to be affected.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Denmark’s new property tax rules from 2024

“Having said that, the property tax changes have also given either lower or unchanged taxes in large parts of the country and in several of those places the house prices have gone up from the fourth quarter last year to the first quarter this year,” she said.

Breaking the trends up by region, Greater Copenhagen and Central Jutland – including second city Aarhus – saw house prices fall by 0.6 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.

In North Jutland, Zealand and South Denmark, there were increases of 4.8 percent, 2 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Although the price of apartments in Copenhagen fell by 1.7 percent compared to a 1.4 percent national average, the figure is less severe than some had feared, according to an analyst who spoke to news wire Ritzau.

That is despite the decline meaning an 80-square-metre apartment in the capital is now theoretically worth 72,000 kroner less than it was at the end of last year.

READ ALSO: What prospective homebuyers in Denmark can expect in 2024

“There hasn’t been a [price] bloodbath, and that is connected to high employment, inflation falling away and the fact that many Danes are seeing the highest wage increases for decades,” said Mire Lie Nielsen, economist with credit union Nykredit.

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