The City Council wants to sell the almost 280,000 square metre Gentofte Lake to the highest bidder. The council wants to save the 10,000 kroner it spends each year maintaining the lake, which was at one time Copenhagen’s main water supply. The lake has not functioned in that, or any other official capacity, for the city since 1859.

“It is a pure cost for us on a property that we have nothing to do with," Lasse Kvist Johansen, a consultant at the centre for urban development in Copenhagen, told Lokalavisen.

The most obvious buyer for the lake is Gentofte Council, but negotiations between authorities in Gentofte and Copenhagen have been stalled for years. The two sides disagree on the drainage expenses charged by energy company Københavns Energi. Gentofte officials have said that the water treatment costs may be too high.

“I honestly am not sure what Gentofte is afraid of,” said Kvist. “It is my understanding that they will not pay more in drainage fees than they do now, but they seem to want to be able to discharge the water from Gentofte Lake free of charge, and we cannot give them that.”

Any potential buyers should give up their dreams of a cosy lakefront cottage, however. Even though a couple of nice islands on the lake are included in the deal, the entire area is protected and any sort of building is prohibited. According to the City Council's website, the property is worth about 420,000 kroner.