Why the SNP’s imported Danish housing plan is doomed to fail

We have a tendency to fetishise Nordic countries, don’t we? Their tasteful furniture; their naked saunas; the way their inhabitants can chuck on an oversized coat with a trucker cap and look like they’re attending Copenhagen Fashion Week rather than sloping out for a yellow-sticker session in Aldi. In Scotland especially there has been a trend in recent years among pro-indies to gaze wistfully at Sweden and Norway et al as examples of how idyllic life could be were we simply unshackled. Hey (hej!), that could be us … couldn’t it?
Lately it’s Denmark that has captured the attention of the SNP. More specifically Denmark’s andelsboliger system. This form of housing allows residents to purchase a share in a co-operative-owned apartment building in return for the right to occupy one of its apartments. The share price is not set by individual occupants but rather determined as a percentage of the total value of the building or development, meaning that an andelsboliger apartment can sometimes be three times cheaper than its private counterpart. Consider it a midway point between renting and owning; a more affordable way to get a place of your own. You might not make much money out of it but you shouldn’t — in theory at least — lose much either.
In a few weeks’ time the SNP will hold its annual national conference where it will reportedly put forward a number of motions to address Scotland’s housing crisis, including the introduction of a community-led housing model inspired by these Danish andelsboligers. An interesting idea but one that’s unlikely to help those who are truly suffering.
• Can Denmark’s co-op housing model help UK first-time buyers?
Don’t get me wrong — I like what the andelsboliger system stands for. It is democratic. There are no landlords. In the 1970s when it took off in Denmark, the scheme offered a form of home ownership to the working classes who could access public grants to buy one. Responsibilities are shared; residents decide as a collective what renovations need carried out. Living in one can expand one’s social and support network as well as provide a sense of stability and security.
If you can get your hands on one, that is. These days, most andelsboligers have years-long waiting lists and it is widely accepted that your best chance of bagging one is to be pals with someone who’s moving out. There are often under-the-table deals. The public grants have been scrapped. Throw in rising interest rates and a growing tension between the occupants who want to raise the value of their shares (through renovations, for example) versus those who wish to safeguard their home’s affordability for future generations, and andelsboligers are no longer accessible to the people for whom they were originally intended.
Could they work here? Sure. But for as long as we treat our homes as profit-making assets, this type of housing will be tethered, however indirectly, to the open market. We can try to import the andelsboliger system, but there will be one ingredient missing: the mindset that allowed it to flourish in the first place.