Can you Buy Property in Faroe Islands?

Can foreigners buy a house in Faroe Islands? Is there any chance at all to buy real estate in Faroe Islands? Continue reading and find out all there is to know about your chance purchasing a property in Faroe Islands.

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A small house in a secluded seaside village far away from the crowds. Sounds tempting? With a surge in tourism in recent years, a growing number of travellers to the Faroe Islands have looked into the opportunity to buy property in the Nordic archipelago. This is no longer an option.

MPs in the Faroese Parliament, Føroya Løgting, voted in favour of a law on 7 December 2021 restricting foreigners from buying real estate in the country. Before the new law came into effect, there were no rules preventing foreign nationals from owning or buying a home or land in the Faroe Islands. 

Located halfway between Scotland and Iceland, the mountainous Faroe Islands are populated by merely 53,500 people. The small volcanic archipelago consists of 18 islands and is a self-governed part within the Kingdom of Denmark.

The islanders have not been used to any huge interest in their archipelago until recently and as such restricting foreign nationals from owning real estate has not been relevant. This has changed after clever and award-winning campaigns by the official tourist board in the Faroe Islands.  

The Faroese Prime Minister, Bárður á Steig Nielsen, brought the matter for parliament in August. This was as a respond to an appeal from local authorities who in recent years have been calling for legislation to prevent foreign investors from purchasing properties in the Faroe Islands.

In an official press release (in Faroese only), the Prime Minister’s Office states that the number of people allowed to buy property in the Faroe Islands as been narrowed from 8 billion to 6 million people. Now only people within the Danish Realm can buy property in the Faroe Islands.

Back in 2018 before the first pandemic outbreak, the Outlying Islands Association in the Faroe Islands expressed concerns that foreign investors could push house prices up, making it harder for the local people to become homeowners.

Everyday life during coronavirus with people staying at home for months and not being able to roam wherever they want, has just nourished the idea of owning a secluded place in the world. The real estate agents all located in the capital, Tórshavn, have kept a close eye on the trend.

The real estate agents in the Faroe Islands have warned against foreign property investment in the small archipelago. 

Kára á Dunga is the CEO in the real estate agency Betri Heim. She says that there has been a huge growth in demand in recent years also during the pandemic. 

– Foreign investors appear keen to find themselves a house in a quaint Faroese village, Kára á Dunga says.

Petur Mohr Niclasen, CEO of real estate agency Skyn, has seen the same trend in the past few years.

– We have been contacted again and again by foreigners interested in buying property especially in the quaint villages around the country, says Petur Mohr Niclasen.

There has not been that many foreigners actually buying land or a house in the Faroe Islands. Now they are unable to do so.

The new law says that foreign nationals with no affiliation to the Danish Kingdom can not buy property in the Faroe Islands without specific government permission. In order to buy a property, foreigners must have resided within the Kingdom of Denmark for a least five years.