Fewer Danes moving to Sweden

Sweden has become a less attractive option to Danes as somewhere to move to

Stephen Gadd

The number of people moving from Denmark to Scania in Sweden has fallen for the first time in a year, reports News Øresund.

Statistics from Ørestat show that in 2016, the number of people moving from Denmark to Scania went up by 8 percent compared to the previous year. For the first three quarters of 2016, numbers continued to increase, but in the last quarter, this changed. For this period, the figures show a fall of 15 percent.

The number of people moving the other way also increased in 2016 – by almost 6 percent. Again, a change can be seen during the year. After three quarters with falling numbers, during the last quarter the amount increased by 19 percent.

House prices and border controls
Several factors appear to be in play here. Housing costs have increased sharply in Malmö over the last year, which makes it less attractive for Danes to live there. In the centre of the city, the price of flats has gone up by around 20 percent and house prices in the municipality as a whole by 9 percent. At the same time, housing costs in Copenhagen have fallen slightly.

READ ALSO: Malmö to upgrade housing development targets

Another reason for the decreasing numbers moving to Scania and increased numbers moving to Denmark could be the effect of the ID checks and border controls that travellers going from Denmark to Sweden are subjected to.

Malmö still the favoured destination
Six out of 10 people who move from Denmark to Scania settle in Malmö. In all, 1,013 chose to leave Denmark for a Malmö address in 2016. That is 18 percent more than in 2015. In the opposite direction, the number increased by 19 percent compared to 2015.

This is the seventh year in a row with a greater number of people moving to Denmark than from Denmark. The numbers moving to Sweden peaked in 2007 because of lower house prices and fell the year after, when house prices in Denmark fell.

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