Doing Business in Greenland - Book - Page 14
7 Foreign aquisition of title or
right of use to real property
7.1 Background
Foreign
political
interest
in
purchasing Greenland from the
Kingdom of Denmark back in 2019,
which intensified in 2025 and 2026,
has lead to massive increase in
interest from parties all over the
world for Greenland.
7.2 The regulation
The regulation was approved by
the Finance Act Committee as a
text note to the financial act and
later ratified as the Greenlandic
Act on acquisition of title or right of
use to real estate (act no. 78 of 21
november 2025).
Greenland has a small market for
real estate. In order to control a
risk of influx in the Greenlandic
housing market, the Government of
Greenland
adopted
special
regulation
to
implement
an
approval process on acquisitions on
real estate from foreigners.
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.
The purpose of the framework was
not to prevent foreign investments, but rather to protect a very
small market and secure the
Greenlandic population the ability
to house themselves.
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
7.3 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.
Acquisition is equivalent to a
mortgage on shares and the
provisions
also
apply
to
applications for areal allotments.
Thor Suhr
Partner, attorney-at-law
ts@nunalaw.gl
14
