by Lise Thillemann Sørensen

The Danish minister for housing has this May devoted approximately 4 million Euros to encourage the building of rental housing on the Danish small islands.

There is at the moment a lack of affordable, rental housing and at the same time a rising demand: People are looking towards the islands for an alternative from the city life. But far from all have the chance to get loans for buying a house, as it is very difficult to get financing on small islands. Therefore they are looking for rental homes, and these are scarce on the islands – and often very old and poor.

It has been very difficult to get housing associations to build on the small islands because of the extra costs of transportation and building on an island will raise the total cost of building. The 4 million Euros have been granted to mitigate the extra expenses so as to encourage the building associations to invest in island homes. It is a very welcome action, and we hope to see new rental homes on the islands within 2021.

An example of rental housing from 2005 on the Island of Strynø in southern Denmark. Two houses of two apartments each was erected.

Lise Thillemann Sørensen is a representative to the Board of ESIN and is the Head of the Sekretariat of the Association of Danish Small Islands.