Demography, housing needs and price development in Copenhagen

During the last decade, the Copenhagen housing market has experienced rising prices and an increasing demographic pressure. This surge in prices and demographic pressure can – to a large extent – be explained by the fact that housing supply have not been able to keep up with demand.

In order to relief this pressure on house prices, it is important to understand the drivers and mechanisms creating this development. In light of these challenges, Copenhagen Economics was asked by the municipality of Copenhagen to identify the factors driving the demographic development in Copenhagen as well as the current and future need for housing.

The main conclusions of our study are:

• The current and future demographic changes are driven by a large international and national migration. The newcomers are attracted by Copenhagen’s supply of education, jobs, livability and quality.
• Currently and in the future, Copenhagen lacks small homes (less than 60 sqm).
• To stabilise housing prices, housing supply should increase by approximately 56.000 homes by 2030.

The study is commissioned by the Municipality of Copenhagen.

The full study is available in Danish.