Danish mortgage FAQ – answers in Danish and English

A realkreditlån is a loan secured on real property and issued by a mortgage credit institution. The institution raises the money by issuing bonds that investors buy. You pay interest to the investors and a contribution fee (bidrag) to the institution for administering the loan and carrying the risk if you cannot pay.

Mortgage credit is usually the cheapest way to borrow for a home, because the loan is secured on the property and the bonds are traded openly on the stock exchange. You can borrow up to 80% of the value of a permanent home and up to 75% of the value of a holiday home. The term can be up to 30 years.

Each loan is matched by bonds in the market (the balance principle). When you take out a loan, bonds for the same amount are sold, and the interest and repayments you pay are passed on to the bondholders. That is why your rate follows the market rate.

It also means you can repay the loan by buying back the underlying bonds. That is why you can refinance when rates change – both when they fall and when they rise.

The limit is 80% of the property's value for permanent homes and 75% for holiday homes. The mortgage institution values the property. When buying, you normally have to pay at least 5% of the price yourself. The rest – typically around 15% – is financed with a bank loan, which is usually more expensive.

How much you can actually borrow also depends on your finances: your income, your other debts and how much you have left to live on after housing costs.

Mortgage loans are funded by bonds and have low rates, but can only cover up to 80% (75% for holiday homes) of the value. Bank loans are used for the part above the mortgage limit and for things like cooperative flats (andelsboliger). Bank loans usually have higher rates, and the bank sets the rate itself.

Many banks also offer priority loans (prioritetslån), which are bank loans secured on the home within the 80% limit. They may have different terms and prices than mortgage loans – always compare the total costs.

The largest institutions for private homeowners are Totalkredit, Realkredit Danmark, Nordea Kredit and Jyske Realkredit. Totalkredit is part of the Nykredit group, and its loans are arranged by a large number of banks – including Nykredit Bank. Realkredit Danmark belongs with Danske Bank, Nordea Kredit with Nordea and Jyske Realkredit with Jyske Bank.

You usually apply through your bank, and the bank may charge its own fees on top of the institution's prices.

With a fixed rate, you know the rate for the entire term – typically 30 years. The payment does not change, and you can always repay the loan at a price of no more than 100. That gives security, but the rate is often higher than on variable loans when you take out the loan.

With a variable rate, the rate is reset at regular intervals. It is often lower to begin with, but it can rise, and then your payment rises too. You need to be able to absorb changes in your budget.

F-loans are adjustable-rate loans. The number tells you how many years the rate is fixed: F1 gets a new rate every year, F3 every third year and F5 every fifth year. When the period ends, the loan is refinanced: new bonds are sold and the rate is set by the market. Each refinancing costs a price deduction – typically 0.2–0.3 points of the outstanding debt.

The shorter the rate period, the lower the rate tends to be – but the more often you risk a rate rise. The contribution fee is typically higher the shorter the rate period.

Short-rate loans follow short money-market rates, and the rate typically changes every 3 or 6 months. It is the rate that reacts fastest when Danmarks Nationalbank changes its policy rates. Product names include F-kort (Totalkredit), FlexKort (Realkredit Danmark), Kort Rente (Nordea Kredit) and Jyske Frihed (Jyske Realkredit).

The terms differ between institutions. Jyske Frihed, for example, is always paid out and repaid at a price of 100, while the others are refinanced at intervals. Always read the product sheet.

With an interest-only period, you pay only interest and the contribution fee – no repayments – for a period, typically up to 10 years. The payment is lower, but the debt does not fall. When the period ends, the loan must be repaid over fewer years, so the payment rises.

Many institutions add a surcharge to the contribution fee during the interest-only period, especially for the part of the loan above 60% of the property's value. Some institutions offer longer interest-only periods (up to 30 years) at lower loan-to-value. Those loans have their own prices and are not included in our calculators.

If your total debt is more than 4 times your household's income before tax (a debt-to-income ratio above 4), and the loan exceeds 60% of the property's value, you can only get a fixed-rate loan (with or without repayments) or a variable-rate loan with repayments where the rate is fixed for at least 5 years. The rule was introduced in 2018 to limit the risk for heavily indebted households.

Regardless of debt, you can generally only get a variable rate or an interest-only period if you could also afford a comparable fixed-rate loan with repayments.

A bond loan (obligationslån) is the ordinary mortgage loan: your debt (the principal) equals the bonds that were sold. If the price is below 100, you receive less than you owe. A cash loan (kontantlån) is based on the amount you receive, and its rate equals the effective rate. Realkredit Danmark, for example, offers fixed-rate loans as both bond loans and cash loans.

The tax rules differ: a capital gain from early repayment of a cash loan can be taxable, while it is tax-free on a bond loan.

The contribution fee is the institution's payment for administering the loan and carrying the risk of losses. It is calculated as a percentage of the outstanding debt per year – for example 0.75% – and paid together with the interest. Like interest, it is tax-deductible.

The rate depends on the institution, the loan type, whether you have an interest-only period and how large a share of the property's value you borrow. The top part of the loan (for example between 60% and 80%) is the most expensive, because it carries the most risk. realkredit.ai shows the current rates from the institutions' price lists.

The price deduction is a cost subtracted from the bond price when the bonds are sold. If the price is 98.5 and the deduction 0.2 points, you are settled at 98.3. So you receive slightly less per krone you owe.

There is a price deduction when you take out a loan, and again every time an adjustable-rate loan is refinanced.

Besides interest and the contribution fee, you typically pay:

• A price loss if the price is below 100 (you owe more than you receive).
• A price deduction and settlement commission to the institution.
• A loan processing fee to the institution – and often fees to the bank.
• Land registration duty to the state: DKK 1,825 + 1.25% of the loan principal (from 1 January 2026).

When buying, registering the deed adds DKK 1,850 + 0.6% of the purchase price. Our calculators show each item separately.

APR (ÅOP – annual percentage rate of charge) combines interest, contribution fee and costs in one figure, so you can compare loan offers. It must be stated in your loan offer. Remember that the APR for variable loans assumes the rate stays the same for the entire term – which it rarely does.

realkredit.ai shows an effective rate that we calculate the same way for all loans from the figures you enter. It is not the institutions' official APR.

When a loan is secured on your home, the mortgage must be registered, and the state charges a duty. For a mortgage it is DKK 1,825 + 1.25% of the loan principal (from 1 January 2026). For the deed when buying, it is DKK 1,850 + 0.6% of the purchase price.

When you refinance and the old loan is cancelled, the variable duty can be reduced by the principal of the old mortgage. You then only pay 1.25% of the amount by which the new loan exceeds the old mortgage. The fixed duty of DKK 1,825 is always payable.

KundeKroner is Totalkredit's discount on the contribution fee. Totalkredit states that all private customers with a Totalkredit loan can get 0.25% of the outstanding debt per year as a discount until 31 December 2029. What happens after that has not been decided.

By default, our comparison includes the discount through 2029 and not after. You can choose to assume that it continues.

The price is the price of the bonds that fund your loan, per DKK 100. If the price is 97, you receive DKK 97 for every DKK 100 you borrow – before costs. The price depends on the bond's rate compared with market rates: when market rates rise, the prices of existing bonds fall, and vice versa.

Fixed-rate loans are typically taken out with a rate that gives a price just below 100. Prices change continuously while the exchange is open.

The vast majority of fixed-rate mortgage loans can always be repaid at a price of 100 – even if the bonds trade higher. That is your insurance: if rates fall, the price rises, but you can still repay at 100 and refinance to a cheaper loan (refinancing down). If rates rise, the price falls, and you can buy back the debt more cheaply (refinancing up).

Repayment at 100 requires notice to a payment date, and you pay interest until that date.

The institutions publish their prices on their websites, and the prices change during the day. We do not fetch them automatically. Instead we link directly to the institutions' price lists, and you enter the price in our calculators yourself. That way you always calculate with the price you are actually offered.

Mortgage rates are set by the market – by the rate investors require to buy the bonds. Short rates mainly follow Danmarks Nationalbank's policy rates, which in turn follow the European Central Bank, because the krone is pegged to the euro. Long rates are also affected by expectations about inflation and the economy and by rates abroad.

Nobody can predict rates reliably. The institutions regularly publish their own expectations, and we link to them under Rates.

The average rates come from Danmarks Nationalbank's statistics on new mortgage loans to households (Statbank Denmark, table DNRNURI). We check for new figures every week, but the statistics are published once a month with a lag of about one month.

The figures are averages for all new loans in the month – not an offer to you. Some series are missing in some months. In that case we show the latest month with data and state which month it is.

Refinancing means repaying your current loan and taking out a new one. It may be at a lower rate (refinancing down), at a higher rate and lower price (refinancing up), to a different loan type or at a different institution. You can also change the term or interest-only period at the same time.

Refinancing costs fees, commission and registration duty, so the gain must be larger than the costs. Use the refinancing calculator to see when you have earned the costs back.

A rule of thumb says the rate should be at least 1 percentage point lower before refinancing pays off. But it depends mainly on your outstanding debt, how long you will stay and what the refinancing costs. The larger the debt and the longer the time, the smaller the rate drop needed.

Our calculator shows how many months it takes to earn back the costs after tax, and what you have gained or lost after 1, 3, 5 and 10 years.

When rates rise, the price of your fixed-rate loan falls. You can then buy back the debt at the low price and take out a new loan at a higher rate. Your debt falls, but the payment typically rises because the rate is higher.

It can pay off if rates later fall again, so you can refinance down with a smaller debt – or if you sell the home and have to repay the debt. If you keep the loan for the full term without rates falling, you often end up paying more. Refinancing up is therefore a judgement about risk, not a guaranteed gain.

Typically you pay:

• A redemption fee and possibly commission and a price premium on the old loan.
• A processing fee, price deduction and commission on the new loan.
• Registration duty: DKK 1,825 + 1.25% of the amount by which the new loan exceeds the old mortgage.
• The bank's fees.
• Any price loss on the new loan.

The costs are normally added to the new loan. In our calculator you can see each item and enter the bank's fee.

It depends on how much risk you can and want to carry. Variable rates have historically often been cheaper over time, but the payment can vary a lot. A fixed rate gives a stable budget and the option to refinance if rates fall.

We cannot tell you what is best for you. That is advice, and it requires someone who knows your full finances. Our comparison shows payments, total costs and outstanding debt for both loans side by side, so you can ask the right questions at the bank.

For ordinary bond loans, a capital gain on repayment is tax-free for private individuals, and a capital loss is not deductible. For cash loans (kontantlån), a gain on early repayment is taxable as a starting point, with exceptions – for example when the loan is repaid because the home is sold.

If in doubt, ask the Danish Tax Agency or a tax adviser.

It depends on four things: your savings (at least 5% of the price + costs), your debt-to-income ratio (many banks set the ceiling around 4 times the household's income before tax), your disposable amount (what you have left to live on) and – in Greater Copenhagen and Aarhus – whether you can withstand a fall in prices.

Banks test whether you can afford a fixed-rate loan with repayments, even if you choose a variable rate. Our calculator does the same and shows which requirement limits you.

The debt-to-income ratio is your total debt divided by the household's annual income before tax. If you owe DKK 4 million and earn DKK 1 million together, the ratio is 4.

There is no legal limit, but a ratio above 4 triggers the 60/4 rule on loan types, and many banks are cautious above 4–5. In Greater Copenhagen and Aarhus, the growth-area guideline adds extra requirements when the ratio exceeds 4.

The disposable amount is what you have left each month after tax, housing costs, loans and other fixed expenses. It has to cover food, clothes, transport, leisure and unexpected expenses. Each bank has its own requirement, depending on the number of adults and children.

In our calculator you can set the requirement yourself. The defaults – DKK 7,000 for the first adult, DKK 5,500 for the second adult and DKK 2,500 per child – are our assumptions, not the banks' official figures.

When buying an owner-occupied home, you normally have to pay at least 5% of the purchase price yourself. In addition, you need money for costs such as registration duty, fees and possibly a buyer's adviser. The bank may require more – especially for holiday homes or if your finances are tight.

Yes. For holiday homes, mortgage credit can cover up to 75% of the value, and contribution rates are often higher than for permanent homes. Some institutions do not offer interest-only periods on the whole loan. The part of the price covered neither by the mortgage nor your down payment is typically financed with a bank loan.

Remember that you still have costs for your current home. Enter them as fixed expenses in the calculator.

No, not for the share itself. When you buy a cooperative flat, you buy a share in an association – not real property – so you typically borrow with a cooperative housing loan from a bank. The association itself may have mortgage loans on the building, which you pay indirectly through your monthly housing charge.

The Danish FSA's growth-area guideline from 2016 only applies to Greater Copenhagen and Aarhus. If your debt-to-income ratio is between 4 and 5, your net wealth must stay positive after a 10% fall in house prices. If the ratio is above 5, it must withstand a 25% fall. If you choose a variable rate, you must be able to pay at a rate 1 percentage point higher than the fixed rate – at least 4%.

Borrowers with high job security can be exempted if they choose a fixed rate with repayments.

Home equity is the difference between what your home is worth and what you owe on loans secured on it. If the home is worth DKK 4 million and you owe DKK 2.8 million, the equity is DKK 1.2 million.

The nominal equity uses the outstanding debt. If you have a fixed-rate loan priced below 100, you can repay the debt more cheaply, so the equity at today's price is higher. Equity is not money in the bank – it only becomes cash if you sell or borrow against it.

You can borrow against your equity with a top-up mortgage loan (up to 80% of the value for permanent homes and 75% for holiday homes) or with a bank loan. The money can be used for things like renovation, repaying more expensive debt or helping children with a down payment.

You must be able to afford the new loan, and the institution values the home before you can borrow. If prices fall, your equity falls too.

A top-up loan is an extra mortgage loan on top of the one you already have. It is secured after your existing loans and therefore sits in the part of the property's value where the contribution fee is highest. That is why it is important to calculate the fee for exactly that part – not the average for the whole loan.

Sometimes it pays to combine all loans into one new loan instead, for example if your old loan has a higher rate.

Then your equity falls. You still pay your loan as agreed – the mortgage institution cannot demand repayment because the value falls. But it can become hard to borrow more, to refinance into a larger loan or to sell without having to pay off remaining debt with other money.

Interest and contribution fees on mortgage loans are negative capital income. In 2026 the deduction is worth about 33% of the first DKK 50,000 per year (DKK 100,000 for married couples) and about 25% of the rest. The exact value depends on your municipal and church tax.

Our calculators use the 2026 rules and show the payment both before and after tax. If you have other interest expenses, for example on a car loan, you can enter them to make the deduction more precise.

As a starting point, no. You can deduct interest and contribution fees, but not fees, registration duty or a price loss on an ordinary bond loan. In our calculations, only interest and contribution fees are deductible.

Special rules may apply to some costs. Ask the Danish Tax Agency if it matters for your decision.

Yes. realkredit.ai is an independent project by Benjamin Jochum. We receive no payment from mortgage institutions or banks, we do not broker loans, and we do not pass on your information. Institutions are shown in alphabetical order, and when we sort a table, we state what it is sorted by.

We have collected contribution rates and fees manually from the institutions' own price lists, and each rate has a source and a date. We check the price lists regularly and update when the institutions change prices. Average rates come from Danmarks Nationalbank and are checked weekly. You enter bond prices yourself from the institution's price list.

If you find an error, write to digitaleannoncer@gmail.com.

No. The AI assistant helps you prepare for the meeting: it explains terms, runs your numbers through the same calculators as the rest of the site and suggests questions you can ask. It does not give personal advice, does not assess your creditworthiness and does not recommend a specific loan or institution.

AI can make mistakes. Always check the figures in your loan offer, and make the decision together with your bank or an independent adviser.

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Because it depends on your situation: how long you will stay, how much risk you can tolerate, your other finances and your plans. A personal recommendation is advice, and that requires someone who knows your full finances. We show the numbers neutrally and explain the differences, so you are better prepared when you talk to the bank.