NEW BUILDING

One of the factors contributing to the financial crisis was a frothy property market, and that included the construction of far too many new commercial buildings. New figures just released show just how frothy things were in Denmark. At the end 2006, perhaps the highwater mark, some 2 million sq meters of new commercial property were started. At the end of 2013, that figure had fallen to around 300,000 sq meters.

Property bulls are of course already saying that that figure is too low, and that Denmark needs more new buildings. Judging from the number of empty properties lying around, I would disagree.

Walter Blotscher