Danish housing market still sluggish despite rising prices

Despite an economy in recovery and rising housing prices, the number of houses sold in Denmark remains at half of its peak in 2005, according to figures published Thursday.
Boliga, a website that tracks home sales in Denmark, reported that in 2013 there were 38,600 houses and 14,000 flats sold nationwide. In 2005, the comparable figures were 77,000 and 26,000.
The figures come as some economists have expressed concern that housing prices in urban areas were heading back to the inflated levels of the pre-recession years.
But Curt Liliegreen, head of Knowledge Center for Housing Economics, a Danish research center, said the sales figures undermined those claims.
"It is obvious that we are not in a recovery and all the talk about a housing bubble has no basis in reality," said Liliegreen, adding "The rising housing prices we have seen are a local phenomena, mainly due to people moving to the big cities."
The sluggish market, according to Liliegreen, lies mainly in people's perceptions of the economy.
"We should be witnessing increased activity, but this is not happening, so it is obvious that something is wrong," he said.
"People's trust in the housing market seems to be gone and a certain negativity seems to have taken hold, which is hard to rectify," he added.