Denmark

Overall construction activity

The Danish economy was very stable before the corona pandemic and the pandemic did not hit the economy as hard as other countries. In 2021 the GDP increased by 4.7%.

 

The Danes had very high-level savings, which they invested in new houses or reparation of existing homes. But the Russian invasion in Ukraine has consequences for the forecast for the year. Before the war and sanctions against Russia, the expected growth in GDP was 2.9% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023. The war and sanctions are expected to affect the expectations of growth, and how much it affects depends on the duration of war and trade relations with Russia. When looking at estimates for GDP growth, three different scenarios are taken into account. It is expected that GDP will decrease by 0.5% to 2.6% depending on the duration of war and the scope of sanctions.

Housebuilding

During the pandemic, the Danes invested in a record number of housing

High incomes and saving rates and the low interest rates have led to strong house-price increases in whole country, primarily in the major urban areas. The price of single-family houses rose by 9% between February 2021 and February 2022. During the same period, prices on owner-occupied apartments rose by 7 %. The very high trade activity generates also high activity in the renovation market because people often renovate when they sell or buy houses. 

The residential construction rose significantly from 2015 to its peak in 2018-21. The total building starts of dwellings tripled from 20.775 in 2015 to 37.000 in average from 2019 - 2021. In 2022-2023 it is expected that the total building starts of dwelling to be about 35.000. 

The activity of Rehabilitation and maintenance works is less volatile and is an important part of construction employment. As a part of the response to the Covid-19 crisis retaliation, an energy renovation scheme of the social housing sector has been agreed (4 billion Euros in 2020-2021 of which almost 2.5 billion Euros upfront in 2020-2026, funded by the renters´ savings via “Landsbyggefonden”).