As I am not a student, my main problem is not so much the cost as (1) the scarcity and the inane "competition" it promotes and (2) the sad state of the apartments condition, at least compared to modern housing in other first-world countries.
Strange that you find the state of Danish apartments to be sur-par. My experience has been the opposite. I am interested to hear what your criteria are.
Fire regulations, plumbing regulations and so on are very strict, so internally you shouldn't really find any qualitative difference between Scandinavia and "other first-world countries".
In Scandinavia we have a strong affection for historic buildings, an affection that extends to interiors. We like fireplaces, creaky hardwood floors, crown mouldings, exposed brick walls, that sort of thing.
So buildings might feel distinctly unmodern, even though they aren't really. Some facilities may be lacking. Elevators are only common in somewhat newer (post-1980) buildings, for example. Common laundry rooms are usually pretty awful. And I have never come across a Scandinavian apartment building that has a porter.
But these are not important things. So again, based on what criteria are you judging Copenhagen?
the type of bathroom typically referred to as a "Copenhagen bathroom". It basically means, that in the "old days", none of the working-class-apartments had showers. Eventually, this changed, but many of the apartments were so small, that it was almost impossible to fit in a big, modern bathroom. However, you get used to it very quickly and it is quite charming in its own way :)
So of all the things that might classify a first-world country, you picked a bathtub? Not sanitation, not drinkable water, not reliable electricity... but a bathtub!
Look, some apartments have small bathrooms. For historical reasons, some old apartment buildings even have external bathrooms (or toilets) that are in the hallway/stairway. This is not true about all Copenhagen buildings. But it's true about some, just as it's true that a lot of buildings in London are afflicted with damp, bad plumbing, shoddy wiring and ugly wallpapers.
But I don't think it's fair to dismiss an entire city as being somehow not "civilization" based on the layouts of a minority of its bath facilities.
In fact, it sounds to me like you might just be a bit spoiled. Have you visited any non-first-world countries? Try Ukraine. You will feel like a billionaire.
If I was moving to Ukraine, Cambodia or Somalia, for one thing I would have done my homework (and vaccines) beforehand, and for second and I wouldn't have first-world expectations. But here we're talking about friggin' Denmark, the happiest (allegedly) country in the world and among the top in quality of life, so forgive me for taking sanitation, drinkable water and, yes, bathtubs for granted. New Jersey, Athens or Madrid are not exactly famous for their prosperity and yet finding half-decent accommodation there within a week and without a "network" (yet another ugly danish surprise that was brought to my attention) was a breeze in comparison.
I'm glad that not all Copenhagen buildings are moldy smelling dumps. I will be even more glad if I was unlucky to see one of the few exceptions and the majority are actually decent but I'm not holding my breath (no pun intended).
I think that you are pissed because you have unreasonable and weird expectations about trivial things.
Bathtubs? Danes are (allegedly) the happiest country in the world because they have free health care, excellent education, wealth, political freedom, stability, etc. etc. Not because of the size of their baths.
I know how the effect of culture shock can be; everything seems weird and even small trivial things are horribly, almost infuriatingly alienating. But culture shock is a psychological, irrational phenomenon. This is about you, not about the country.
The amount of discussing the messenger instead of the message in this thread is staggering but I'll bite anyway:
- Country, nationality and language are required fields in this site. Since leaving them blank was not an option, putting some blatantly bogus values was the second best.
- My nationality is besides the point but I'm not American. The "American" writing style may be thanks to watching too many American movies, frequenting too many American speaking forums or - guess what - living there as an expat for several years.
FWIW: I tend to attract way too much attention to me instead of my message. I have used that fact as a means to help me learn to express myself differently. That is not intended to blame you. It is intended to empower you: How we present information has a significant impact on how people respond to it.
Best of luck with your situation, whether you stay in Copenhagen or not.
"I have been to copenhagen" meaning, you rode the roller coasters in Tivoli? I'm sure visiting as an (affluent) tourist would be a much more pleasant experience.
Is the 10% before or after taxes? Would love to get a sense of your rent (or equiv. wage) range if there are no privacy concerns.
The high taxes line was just a flippant remark, I can't really complain as I knew about it beforehand. Having said that, the perks that come from high taxes are of little value to an expat moving there for a 1-2 year gig.
Before tax. Rent is 3400 DKK, in a nice house share with two developers. Our lease is up in January (original owner wants it back), but it has been nice otherwise. 10 months here.
You can extrapolate the wage from this, but it's not high in the field at all.
Already replied on a sibling comment but once again, the $750/month was for a single room, no more than 15-20sqm, in a two-bedroom flat. If that's "on the cheaper end of the spectrum", I might have to negotiate a raise.
The "Copenhagen bathroom" was the single worst turn off in the whole deal. Glad to know it's not like this everywhere in the city.
OK - $750/month for a room in a shared flat is actually reasonable. But if I were you, I would look at the rooms at around $1000/month. The selection should be much nicer and with fewer competitors. Then you can take your time to get advice from colleagues and probably find something equally nice for $750/month within 6 months.
Sage advice, I'll probably try it. Still, this may fix my immediate problem but it doesn't do anything for the elephant in the room that, judging from the comments here, was hardly addressed:
she returned home to read her e-mail, which contained over 100 replies.
THIS is the real problem. At the end of the day (or the week) it doesn't matter how one out of the 100 candidates is selected; what matters is that 99 fools will have to keep looking. Finding housing shouldn't be like applying to
Google.
What are you claiming is the "real problem?" I'd argue that the housing market in CPH is no more scarce than any major city, and the only reason it seems so to you is because you were seriously handicapping yourself by not optimizing your approach.
The fact that my landlord's ad received over 100 replies just indicates that there's a pool of "bottom performers" who are repeatedly trying to find housing by responding to ads despite the fact that they're doing some things wrong. Every new ad is going to receive a large number of responses from this same group of hopeless people. If they want to find a place, they're going to have to find out what's wrong with their approach and make some changes, just as I had to do.
In that case, you're just trolling and your story lacks all credibility.
For starters, because you should know damn well what you get into if you try to find housing in a major European city outside the normal housing system.
Also, because there's absolutely nothing abnormal in Europe about a century old building or four floors without an elevator.
My guess is you are well aware you screwed up by being unprepared, and now you're just trying to externalize the blame, hoping the readership here won't know any better.
I'd probably think the same if I hadn't done this exact same thing on three different countries already without breaking a sweat (relatively speaking).
Suffice to say that one of them was Spain, a country with one of the lowest percentages of English speakers in Europe, and me not speaking a word in Spanish at the time.
The situation you describe seems very recognizable througout a lot of european caitals or bigger agglomerations. During my last searches I encountered all the points you mention in Utrecht/NL, I hear comparable things about Amsterdam , Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg or Paris.
So, welcome to a european capital! 1 hour travel to work, 5th floor without lift is the way to go: older houses far outside of the big cities. The suburbs are already filled with locals who do not want/cannot afford to live in the centers. I'm completely unaware of the situation in Denmark, but just looking on google maps tells me that maybe Roskilde or Farum could be places to look for.
Also: you move to another country: other habits. If it's the situation on the housing market I cannot tell, but the million ways of being (un)friendly or (not) answering mails/letters, dealing with business transactions etc are the things which makes relocating difficult at heart, they are not just annoyances. I live in "another" country for some 20 years and will move to another one this month: I expect (and already experienced) a lot of impedance mismatches which could trigger a "considered harmful" post, but in the end I will have to adapt to enjoy the good things of it.
Most of my friends live in Amager, Østerbro, etc. Anyone expecting to find affordable, modern accommodation easily in historic city centres is deluding themselves to a degree. Copenhagen has one of the more modern transportation systems in the world, so commuting is hardly an effort.
It strikes me a big part of the problem may be where he mentions "30 minute drive" - there's a big difference between 30mins behind the wheel of a car and 60mins on the copenhagen transport system (which, yes, is stunning)
I've always picked my location so that I don't have to commute more than half an hour each way but if that's what it takes to find a modern half-decent place in this city, I may consider living further.
This happened to me in another European country, I lucked out though and solved it myself. I would ask your employer for help if you haven't already. Even in a small company an email to all employees will tap you into their social networks and might unearth a few more websites or tips. Then there is couchsurfers, share-living with students for just two months while you hunt another place etc. Stick with it though; living in another country for a while is one of the best things you can do: "spend money on experiences not things".
As I am not a student, my main problem is not so much the cost as (1) the scarcity and the inane "competition" it promotes and (2) the sad state of the apartments condition, at least compared to modern housing in other first-world countries.