Danish Supreme Court hears housing discrimination case

Denmark's Supreme Court is hearing a major housing case on Friday. Seven foreign-origin families from Helsingør are suing their former landlord. They say the landlord ended their leases based on ethnic discrimination. This case could affect social housing tenants across the country.

The landlord ended the families' leases in 2022. It applied a national housing law passed in 2018. The law targets areas called transformation areas. In these areas, over half of residents are non-Western. Housing associations must reduce social housing to 40 percent by 2030. Landlords must rent the rest at market rates.

Lower courts previously supported the landlord. They ruled that non-Western does not mean one single ethnic group. Therefore, they said the rule does not break equal treatment laws. The tenants' lawyer argues that origin criteria are not neutral.

About 11,000 people in Denmark must move out by 2030 under this law. In late 2025, the European Union Court of Justice reviewed a Copenhagen case. It decided Danish courts must judge if the policy causes ethnic discrimination. If the Supreme Court rules for tenants, they may get similar housing. No verdict date is set yet, reports The Local.