Buying an apartment for your child in Copenhagen: rent, tax and rules

In a parental purchase (forældrekøb), you buy an owner-occupied apartment (ejerlejlighed) and rent it out to your child, and you pay tax on the market rent, even if your child pays less. The Danish Tax Agency treats the letting as a business, so you keep accounts and pay no property value tax on the apartment. The rent has to follow the Rent Act, exactly as if you were letting to a stranger. Here are the rules on rent, the lease, tax, flatmates and a later sale, with a worked example.

What is a parental purchase?

A parental purchase is when you buy an owner-occupied home in order to rent it out to your child. According to the Danish Tax Agency (in Danish), the same rules apply when you rent to other close relatives: your or your spouse's parents and grandparents and their spouses, your children's spouses, and your grandchildren and their spouses.

If you have bought the home to rent it to a close relative without living there yourself, you count as self-employed for tax purposes. You must calculate and report the profit or loss from the letting, but you pay no property value tax on the home.

A co-op apartment cannot be used for a parental purchase

If you buy a co-op apartment (andelsbolig) and rent it to your child, you cannot use the parental purchase rules, says skat.dk (in Danish). Under the guideline standard articles for housing co-operatives (in Danish), only someone who lives in the home or moves in can become a member, and the member must live there (§ 3). The co-operative's own articles decide, so read them before you consider buying a share.

How much rent should your child pay?

The rent should match the market rent, because that is what you are taxed on, and anything below it is a gift to your child. According to the Legal Guide (in Danish), the market rent is the lawful rent you could get by letting to someone who is not a close relative, under the rent rules. So it does not rest on your own loan costs.

The rent can only be agreed freely in buildings taken into use after 31 December 1991 and in certain conversions (§ 54 of the Rent Act, in Danish). Otherwise, the rules for a let apartment in Copenhagen depend on whether, on 1 January 1995, it was in a building with six or fewer apartments or with seven or more (City of Copenhagen, in Danish):

• Seven or more: as a rule, cost-based rent under § 19 of the Rent Act. The rent rests on the building's operating costs, maintenance and return on capital (City of Copenhagen, in Danish).
• Six or fewer: the rent is compared with similar apartments with cost-based rent and may not be more than 10% higher. You cannot calculate the rent from your own costs for loans or service charges (City of Copenhagen, in Danish).

What to check before you bid on an apartment is covered in our guide to buying an apartment to rent out.

Have the rent approved in advance by the rent tribunal

In Copenhagen, you can ask the rent tribunal (huslejenævnet) to approve the rent in advance. According to the City of Copenhagen (in Danish), you must own the home yourself, it must be the only one you let, you must not already have signed a lease, and the tribunal must be able to inspect the apartment. It cost DKK 602 in 2025. The decision is binding: the tenant cannot have the rent reduced as long as the apartment is in the same condition as at the inspection.

So apply before your child signs. The approval is the rent tribunal's decision under the Rent Act, not a decision by the Danish Tax Agency, so talk to your accountant about how you document the market rent.

Lease, deposit and termination

Your child is a tenant like any other, and the Rent Act applies to the tenancy (§ 1 of the Rent Act, in Danish). The lease must be in writing if either of you asks for it (§ 11), and if you use a pre-printed lease, it must be an authorised one (§ 14). Use the authorised standard form A10. The lease also documents the rent you have to enter in your accounts.

You can ask for a deposit of at most 3 months' rent and prepaid rent for up to 3 months as well (§ 59). Neither is income on top of the rent. See the rules on deposit and prepaid rent.

Your child has the same protection against termination as any other tenant. You can give notice if you want to live in the apartment yourself, but only if you owned it when the lease was signed and do not own other let owner-occupied or co-op homes when you give notice (§ 170, no. 3). Otherwise, the narrower grounds in § 171 apply. If you expect to sell when your child finishes studying, talk about it before the lease is signed.

If the apartment is in an owners' association, the standard articles for owners' associations (in Danish) require you to tell the board about the letting, its length and the tenant's name and contact details no later than when the tenancy starts (§ 30). Read the association's own articles as well.

How a parental purchase is taxed

You pay tax on the market rent, whatever your child pays, and deduct the costs of the letting in your accounts, says skat.dk (in Danish). The accounts must be kept on an ongoing basis under the Bookkeeping Act and kept for 5 years.

Among other things, you can deduct property taxes, water, sewerage and refuse charges, administration and accountancy, insurance and maintenance, and interest on a mortgage, for example, is deductible too. Improvements that make the home better than when you bought it are not deductible. In the first 3 years of ownership, you can deduct renovation costs on an owner-occupied apartment of at most 25% of the annual rental income (the percentage rule).

Method	What it means
Ordinary tax rules	The profit before interest is personal income with labour market contribution. Interest is deducted in capital income. This method applies automatically if you choose nothing else.
The business tax scheme (virksomhedsordningen)	Interest can be deducted in personal income, but since 2021 an interest correction is calculated on the debt in the parental purchase home. Without another business, there is often no advantage.
The capital return scheme (kapitalafkastordningen)	Part of the profit can be taxed as capital income, but since 2021 the purchase price of the parental purchase home is left out of the basis. Without another business, there is often no basis left.

Since 2021, according to skat.dk, your interest has the same deduction value as if you had bought the home as a private individual. You make the final choice on your annual tax return. Which method suits you depends on the rest of your finances, so talk to your accountant or adviser.

When your child pays less than the market rent

You are still taxed on the full market rent, and the difference is a gift to your child. According to the Legal Guide (in Danish), the rent benefit is a gift in each income year when the apartment is let on an ordinary lease, and your child pays gift tax rather than income tax on it. If the tenancy cannot be terminated for at least 10 years, other rules apply.

In 2026 you can give your child gifts worth DKK 80,600 free of gift tax, and above that amount gift tax is 15% as a rule (skat.dk, in Danish). The rent benefit counts together with the other gifts you give your child in the same year. Gifts above the amount must be reported by 1 May the following year, and your child is liable for the tax. The amount for 2027 had not been published on skat.dk when this article was written.

Worked example: a 45 m² apartment for a student

The example rests on two assumptions: a market rent of DKK 9,000 a month, and an agreed rent of DKK 7,000. They are figures for the calculation, not an estimate of rent levels in Copenhagen. The fee is our price for long-term rental, 8.5% excl. VAT of the monthly rent, with 25% VAT on top.

Item	Per month	Per year
Market rent (assumption)	DKK 9,000	DKK 108,000
Agreed rent (assumption)	DKK 7,000	DKK 84,000
Rent benefit, a gift to your child	DKK 2,000	DKK 24,000
Tax-free gift amount in 2026		DKK 80,600
Rental income you are taxed on	DKK 9,000	DKK 108,000
Fee, 8.5% excl. VAT of the agreed rent	DKK 595	DKK 7,140
VAT on the fee, 25%	DKK 148.75	DKK 1,785
Deposit, at most 3 months' rent	Up to DKK 21,000 once	Not income

You are taxed on DKK 108,000 minus your deductible costs, even though you only receive DKK 84,000. The rent benefit of DKK 24,000 triggers no gift tax as long as, together with your other gifts to your child in the same year, it stays below DKK 80,600. If your child pays the full market rent, there is no gift.

Flatmates: when your child shares the apartment

As a tenant, your child may sublet up to half of the apartment's living rooms, and no more people may live there than there are living rooms (§ 157 of the Rent Act, in Danish). The sublease must be in writing, and you must have a copy before the subletting starts. Your child is then the landlord towards the flatmate and is answerable to you for damage and house rules (§ 159). Read more about subletting a rental home.

If your child lets a room to the same tenant for 4 months or more, the basic allowance is 2/3 of the annual rent your child pays (skat.dk, in Danish). With the rent in the example, that is 2/3 of DKK 84,000, or DKK 56,000 a year. See more about the tax when you rent out a room.

If you instead let directly to both your child and your child's friends, be careful with the rent. In a case where an owner let to his two daughters and two of their friends, the rent had been set by what the daughters could afford, and the district court found that the friends' rent could also be adjusted for tax purposes (SKM2008.723.VLR, described in the Legal Guide, in Danish). Letting the apartment as single rooms requires the municipality's consent when the home is set aside for year-round housing in a local plan or has so far been let as an apartment (§ 4(2) of the Housing Conditions Act, in Danish). Whoever is the landlord, use the same tenant screening you would use with a stranger.

When the apartment is sold, including to your child

If you sell the apartment, the gain is taxed as capital income under the Property Gains Tax Act, because you have not lived there yourself (skat.dk, in Danish). You get an addition to the purchase price of DKK 10,000 for each year you have owned the apartment, though not for the year of sale, and a loss can only be deducted from gains on other properties. If you have used the business tax scheme and the apartment is still let when you sell, the gain is taxed as personal income with labour market contribution.

Selling to your child

If you sell to your child, the gain is calculated with the market price as the sale price, and if you sell for less, the difference is a gift. In family transfers, according to the Legal Guide (in Danish), the price can as a rule be set at the latest public property valuation plus or minus 15%, or plus or minus 20% when the owner has received a valuation under the Property Valuation Act. The Danish Tax Agency can depart from this in special circumstances, and the valuation must match the property's actual status. When a let apartment was sold as vacant to the daughter who rented it, the price had to be the market price (SKM2010.242.LSR).

If you are unsure about the price, you can ask the Danish Tax Agency for a binding ruling. If your child lives in the apartment after buying it, your child can later sell it tax-free, but the transfer may mean your child has received a gift (skat.dk, in Danish).

How we help parents who rent to their child

We can handle the letting so it runs as it would with a tenant from outside the family: a lease under the Rent Act, collecting the deposit and rent, and following up if a payment is missed. Our reports show payments, costs and maintenance, so your accountant has the figures for the accounts. You pay 8.5% excl. VAT of the monthly rent. Read more about long-term rental.

Want a figure for the rent before you buy? See what your home could earn.

The article is based on rules published up to and including 28 October 2026. It is general information, not legal or tax advice. A parental purchase needs an assessment of your own situation, so talk to your accountant or adviser before you buy.

Sources

• Parental purchase (forældrekøb) (skat.dk, in Danish)
• Gifts: how much you can give in 2026 (skat.dk, in Danish)
• Renting out a room or a home you live in yourself (skat.dk, in Danish)
• The Legal Guide C.H.3.2.2.2.1, letting to relatives and similar (Danish Tax Agency, in Danish)
• The Legal Guide C.H.2.1.8.2, sale and purchase sums in transfers other than ordinary sales (Danish Tax Agency, in Danish)
• The Rent Act (lejeloven), Act no. 341/2022 (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• The Housing Conditions Act (lov om boligforhold), Act no. 342/2022 (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Standard articles for owners' associations, Executive Order no. 1738/2020 (Retsinformation, in Danish)
• Standard articles for a private housing co-operative (Ministry for Children, the Elderly and Housing, in Danish)
• Let owner-occupied and co-op apartments (City of Copenhagen, in Danish)
• Six or fewer apartments in a building (City of Copenhagen, in Danish)
• Seven or more apartments in a building (City of Copenhagen, in Danish)
• Rent approved in advance (City of Copenhagen, in Danish)