I wanted to talk a little about housing in Norway. I have personally not bought or rented property since I have been in Norway, but have found some helpful information on the internet that I can share with you about the housing in Norway.

Housing in Norway

As a rule, housing is quite expensive in Norway (as everything else). But I am sure it is possible to find affordable and inexpensive housing in Norway if you really try! According to many sites the costs of housing in Norway is rising quite dramatically and is expected to continue, so be prepared!

You can always expect that the closer to a city center you want to live the more you will pay. For example, my husband and I were looking for an apartment to rent downtown Oslo. The prices were really crazy. But outside the city center (but still reachable by metro or bus) it was much more affordable. So it will really depend on where your looking weather it is outrageously expensive or not.

On particular article described why housing in Norway tends to be so expensive, “The cost of housing in Norway is generally high for several reasons: houses are well built and fully insulated, with heating in all rooms because of the cold climate. In addition, quality requirements are high, which means that there is little simple and inexpensive housing available.”

Buying property in Norway

So your moving to Norway and want to buy your own home? I am not an expert at this, but I have to say with the prices for renting a place here…buying property in Norway is one of the smartest things you can do (at least from my inexperienced opinion). Like I said, I am not an expert on this subject at all but I did do some digging on the internet and found a few helpful ideas and suggestions.

If you are looking to purchase your home, one of the most common places to look for available properties is on finn.no. Also looking in local newspapers like Aftenposten is always a good idea.

What I have heard suggested by friends here in Norway is that you should really hire a real estate agent to help you buy a home. If you are looking for a real estate agent in Norway you can always check out the Norwegian yellow pages gulesider.no and search for the term “Eiendomsmegling”.

Renting property in Norway

This is something I have a teeny bit more experience with…or should I say I don’t have experience with renting property in Norway, but with TRYING to rent property in Norway :) FYI we currently rent a very small room from a friend which doesn’t count in my opinion as ‘renting property’. You know what I mean?

We have tried to rent apartments in Oslo’s city center that were way to small to be as expensive as they were. Thankfully the renters did not seem to take well to the fact that neither I nor my husband are Norwegian. That’s a whole other story in itself…so I wont go there for now!

From what I understand and have experienced in Norway, if you want to rent an apartment you should just look for it on finn.no. Everything seems to be listed on finn. (If I’m wrong…somebody please correct me and shed some light on my ignorance!) My husband who has lived in Norway for ten years swears that that is the only way to find a rental in Norway, or at least in Oslo.

I personally find it strange that there seems to be only ONE place to find apartments to rent. I guess it works, but it just seems strange! Plus there is always a huge demand for housing (or at least it has seemed like it every time we tried to find something to escape our very small room) which makes it a bit of a challenge to find something nice/affordable.

As with buying property, you can also find apartments to rent in Aftenposten and other local newspapers’ classified section.

I hope I have been a little helpful to you on your search to find housing in Norway! Good luck!

Do you buy or rent property in Norway? Share with us any advice you have on the subject in a comment below!