Why Denmark has the solution to Britain’s broken property market

Simon Brown, chief executive of Landmark Information Group, says there is no easily identifiable bottleneck slowing the pace of sales.

“If the answer was really simple, we wouldn’t have that problem, because someone would have already fixed it,” he says.

“We have an industry that has been largely isolated. So real estate agents, lenders, whether they’re banks or building societies, brokers to some degree, transportation, they’re all highly regulated, they all have significant obligations of things they’re supposed to do, but they’re not necessarily well connected to each other.

“If you then add the fact that you have an industry that has been very analog, you have a situation where labor practice is such that it has become very slow.”

While digitization has improved somewhat as a result of the pandemic, the lack of cooperation between the different parties involved still slows down the process. Therefore, many processes, such as money laundering and identity checks, are duplicated.

“The industry as a whole needs to agree that it needs to go faster,” adds Brown.

Scandinavian countries have smaller populations, national digital ID systems, and a different legal system to the UK, making quick property transactions more feasible.

But Australia has a similar legal system to the UK and a fairly large population of 26 million people. And yet you can buy a property there in four weeks, says Brown, who is from Australia.

“When I got here I couldn’t believe it had taken so long. In fact, when people were talking about chains, they had never even heard of a chain,” she says.

Have a more effective system to sell properties it would benefit the economy in many ways, it is argued. Making it easier for people to get around means there is less inefficient use of resources, workers can easily pursue opportunities, and more money is spent on home improvements.

In Copenhagen, Sarah long ago had new flooring installed, bought a big bright blue sofa, and is now thinking about renovating the kitchen.

Evans, who will likely be forced to give up the apartment he has been trying to buy since February, was also hoping to renovate and furnish his new apartment.

Instead, you’ll likely be stuck in your current co-ownership for many months and face a much higher mortgage rate than before if you find a new place.

“The biggest hurdle is how long it takes,” he says wearily.