Doing Business in Greenland - Book - Page 18
10 Special regulation
10.1 Background
The Government of the United
States of America initially stated an
interest in purchasing Greenland
from the Kingdom of Denmark back
in 2019. This interest intensified
with the repeat of the interest in
2025. The coverage has led to
massive increase in interest from
parties all over the world for
Greenland.
Greenland is a country with a small
population and a small market for
real estate. In order to control
influx
in
the
market,
the
Government of Greenland adopted
a text annotation to the financial
act, ensuring control on future
acquisitions on real estate from
foreigners.
The purpose of the text annotation
is not to prevent foreign investments, but rather to protect a very
1
small market.
1 The housing market in Nuuk is based
on a population of nearly 20.000
people. Up until 2024 the population
has been steadily increasing but has
since stagnated. The expectation is
that the overall population in
Greenland will decline and the
population in Nuuk will remain
18
10.2 The regulation
The regulation was approved by
the Finance Act Committee as a
text note to the financial act and
introduces requirements in order to
own real estate in Greenland.
The Greenlandic parlament is
expected to ratify the regulation
later in 2025.
As of 1 Februrary 2025 real estate
can only be acquired by:
Individuals
with
Danish
citizenship,
individuals
without
Danish
citizenship who have had
permanent residence and full
tax liability in Greenland for the
past 2 years,
Companies
domiciled
in
Greenland, where the entire
share capital and votes are
owned by individual who
otherwise
meet
the
requirements,
Companies operating under a
current permit, concession or
license.
Acquisition is equivalent to a
mortgage on shares and the
provisions
also
apply
to
applications for areal allotments.
10.3 Dispensation
There is a possibility for dispensation worked into the framework
of the regulation.
For the purpose of the dispensation
The Greenlandic Government will
assess applications with regard to
the following:
The purpose of acquiring
access to real estate,
the economic effects and the
impact on the local real estate
market
a commercial and businessrelated
assessment
that
supports the application for a
license to acquire access to real
estate
In
addition,
foreign
policy
considerations and Greenland's
international
cooperation
may
justify rejecting foreign acquisition
of title to real estate.
Thor Suhr
Partner, attorney-at-law
ts@nuna-law.gl
