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PROPERTY

Where are Norway’s cheapest and most expensive homes?  

Norway's property market is a tale of two extremes when it comes to prices. Here are the homes that offer the best value for money and those with a much higher premium. 

Pictured are exclusive apartments in Tjuvholmen in Oslo.
These are Norway's most and least expensive areas to buy property. Pictured are exclusive apartments in Tjuvholmen in Oslo. Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash

The average cost of a property in Norway during the opening months of 2023 is around 4.3 million kroner and has risen 4.5 percent already this year, the latest figures show. 

Despite many expecting a significant downturn in the Norwegian property market, house prices have performed steadily, if not spectacularly.

Unsurprisingly, the capital – Oslo – is the most expensive place to step on the property ladder. The most up-to-date figures show that the price per square metre to buy in Oslo is between 72,307 kroner and 96,955 kroner. We’ve used the latest price per square metre figures from national data agency Statistics Norway as average prices overall for the whole country can be challenging to find. 

READ ALSO: Are Norway’s mortgage requirements different for foreign residents?

The areas around the capital, primarily those within commuting distance, are the next most expensive places to buy. A home in Bærum set house hunters in the area back in the region of 82,198 kroner per square metre for an apartment or 65,918 for a terraced or semi-detached house, and 67,093 kroner for a detached property. 

Typically apartments were the most expensive per square metre due to their size. After that, it’s more of a toss-up of whether or not a semi-detached is cheaper than a fully detached property when calculating the average price per square metre. 

Overall though, detached and semi-detached houses are typically Norway’s most expensive property type. The exception to this is high-end penthouse apartments in Oslo. 

After Bærum, Lørenskog, Lillestørm and Frogn (all in the surrounding areas of Oslo) are the priciest areas to buy. Other areas around Oslo with high property prices are Drammen, Nordre Follo, Asker and Nittedal. 

Lunner was the cheapest of all the municipalities bordering Oslo to purchase property. There it was two to three times cheaper to buy a property (per square metre) than in Oslo. 

Trondheim and Tromsø were the 2nd and 3rd priciest of the big cities outside of Oslo and its surrounding areas. The average cost of an apartment in both was around 65,000 kroner per square metre for an apartment. The price of an apartment in Bergen was slightly lower at 62,000 kroner for every square metre of space. 

Stavanger was considerably cheaper, with an apartment in the southwesterly city costing just a shade over 50,000 kroner per square metre in 2022.

Looking at things on a more national scale, the counties of Oslo, Viken, and Trondheim are the most expensive places to purchase an apartment. The two largest counties in Norway were the most expensive places to buy detached or terraced houses. 

Vestfold and Telemark was the third most expensive location for detached homes, while terraced properties in Trøndelag took bronze for the most costly in Norway. 

For an overview of the most expensive individual properties in Norway by asking price currently on the market, you can use this filter on the ad listing site Finn.no. For those looking for a home at a cut-price deal, you can also view the homes when sorted from lowest to highest.

Kvinesdal, Kristiansund, Froland, Sveio, and Farsund were the five cheapest places for an apartment. Flats in all five cost around 26,000 kroner per square metre. Kivensdal, Froland and Farsund are all found In Agder. Farsund is located in the mouth of the Lyngdalsfjorden, offering excellent views for some of Norway’s cheapest properties per square metre. 

However, there was a relative lack of data on apartment prices compared to other property types, meaning there may be cheaper places for a flat that figures don’t exist for currently. Detached homes in Rendalen, Stor-Eidval, Dovre, Nissedal and Hjartdal were the most affordable in the country per square metre. A detached property in these areas costs between 8,900 and 11,100 kroner per square metre. 

On a more national level, Møre og Romsdal, Innlandet and Nordland are the cheapest areas in Norway to buy property. 

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READER INSIGHTS

‘It’s not easy to live in Norway without one’: The verdict on electronic IDs

A lot of everyday life in Norway revolves around using electronic IDs, and The Local's readers generally agreed that while obtaining one was hard work, the system works well once you're in it. 

'It's not easy to live in Norway without one': The verdict on electronic IDs

Electronic IDs were first launched in Norway around 20 years ago as a means of proving your identity when using online services. 

Since then, the system has evolved significantly, and now digital IDs make up a big part of everyday life. 

Electronic IDs are used in Norway for everything from signing up for the mobile payment service Vipps to verifying your identity when signing contracts, ordering prescriptions, and filing taxes. 

The overwhelming majority of people who responded to our survey said the system was either “good”  or “really good”, with only around 10 percent saying it was either “okay” or “really bad.”

“Once you have it, it’s great, and you have to wonder how every country doesn’t have the same,” Adam, who lives in Bodø, said.

‘Impossible to participate in society without it’ 

However, many also shared how it was “impossible to participate in everyday life in Norway without one. 

“It’s perfect once you have it, but when you don’t, you really feel excluded from society,” Guillaume said. 

“When I first moved here, I kept saying you do not exist in Norway with BankID, which I still feel is true. You really cannot do anything in this country without it,” Holly, who lives in Oslo, wrote in response to our survey. 

“Once you have it, it’s really easy and simple to use. But if you don’t have it, it’s almost impossible to participate in Norwegian society,” Hazael, who lives in Grimstad, said. 

While there are several different options for electronic IDs in Norway, most survey respondents referred to BankID. 

This is because it is the most widely used, integrated and adopted electronic ID in Norway, has a higher security clearance than the state-issued MindID, and doesn’t cost money. 

‘It’s certainly not setup to help foreigners’ 

BankID is the best integrated electronic ID and, with an app solution, the easiest to use. However, readers’ experiences of obtaining a BankID varied. 

Some found it straightforward, and others found things much harder. 

“Challenging – it’s certainly not setup to help foreigners,” Adam in Bodø, wrote when asked to describe the process of getting an electronic ID. 

READ ALSO: The issues with Norway’s electronic ID system

One of the reasons foreigners can have issues is that the regulations on what is required for a foreigner to obtain a BankID isn’t necessarily clear for consumers, or for banks. 

“It was difficult to obtain the information I needed to get BankID, but I eventually found out through trial and error how I could get it. I was lucky, as I already knew someone in Norway. That helped me speed up the process,” Hazael said. 

Meanwhile, Holly shared how she felt that banks decided the rules on the spot when dealing with foreigners. She said she found getting a BankID without a job offer impossible. 

 “I remember going with my spouse and the relocation expert that was helping him get a bank account, we actually went to a bank and met a banker in person. When I asked the banker if I, too, could get an account set up with BankID, he and a group of bankers basically formed a huddle and whispered back and forth for a while before replying, ‘Maybe,’ and that the job had to be longer than a six-month contract. They just made it up on the spot,” Holly wrote. 

Even though Holly has switched banks, she has kept her old account open because the new bank cannot grant her BankID unless she travels hundreds of kilometres for an in-person appointment. 

However, some people had a much easier time of things. 

“Straightforward for me because we had a good bank manager. Opened bank account quickly and got BankID within a few weeks,” Sam, who lives in Oslo, said about their journey to obtain a BankID a few years ago.

Many others said the process was as straightforward as just showing up at the bank. 

Typically, having a Norwegian birth number issued by the Norwegian Tax Administration and other paperwork made the process of getting a BankID much more straightforward. 

Norway has two forms of national identity numbers, D-numbers and birth numbers issued to those expected to reside in Norway for a long time. 

“After receiving our Norwegian birth number, it was possible to obtain a bank account. After that, it was easy to obtain a BankID,” Hannelore, in Trondheim, wrote. 

“Long, bureaucratic and frustrating. Only once having a fødselnummer (Norwegian birth number) it was easy,” Arjen in Jessheim shared. 

Even then, some readers were asked for everything from payslips to rental contracts to obtain a BankID. 

Another reader had issues obtaining BankID after the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration sent their documentation to the wrong address. 

“Most banks realised their process was difficult but lacked interest or compassion to help. I ended up using a bank that had good reviews within the international community,” Sam, who lives in Ålesund, wrote.

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