How do you explain the difference between a valuation and a sale price?

A public valuation and a selling price are two different figures, even though both say something about what your home is worth. The public property valuation is the state’s estimate of the value of your property, and it is used first and foremost as the basis for property taxes, that is, property value tax and land tax. The public valuations are made by the Danish Valuation Agency (Vurderingsstyrelsen), part of the Ministry of Taxation (Skatteministeriet), and the figure is based on register data rather than a visit to your home. The selling price comes about somewhere else entirely. It emerges from the interplay of supply, demand and negotiation, when a buyer and a seller agree on an amount on the open market at a specific point in time.

An example makes the difference clear. If your home has a public valuation of 2.000.000 kr., in practice it may end up selling for 1.800.000 kr. or for 2.200.000 kr., depending on market conditions at the time of sale.

The public property valuation and what it is used for

The public property valuation is based on register data about the home and its surroundings. This means information such as size, location, type of home, plot size and other registered details, supplemented by comparable sales taken from the land register (tingbogen). Nobody comes round to check whether your kitchen is new or whether your view is better than the neighbours’. The figures come from what is already registered about the property.

The method behind it is a statistical mass calculation. Homes are grouped according to objective criteria such as location, plot size, floor area, year of construction and type. The model then compares your home with actual sale prices for similar properties in the area. Comparable sales from recent years are the main point of reference. There are more than 1,7 million detached houses in Denmark alone. So this is not an individual assessment of each home, but an average-based view in which your home is placed in a group and valued on the group’s terms.

The type of home determines which method and which price level are used. Detached houses, owner-occupied flats, terraced houses and holiday homes are valued separately, so a holiday home and an owner-occupied flat are not measured by the same yardstick.

The valuation consists of two figures, and you need to be able to tell them apart. The property value covers the home and the plot together, in other words everything as one whole. The land value, on the other hand, is the value of the plot itself, as if it were undeveloped. It is the same plot, but valued without the house.

The purpose of the public property valuation is first and foremost a tax one. It forms the basis for property value tax and land tax, and it is designed to sit below market value, so that it does not overshoot what the home could actually be sold for. The valuation is the state’s calculated estimate for tax purposes, while the selling price is the amount a buyer and a seller agree on in the market. The two figures may be close to each other or some way apart, and one does not replace the other.

The selling price is where buyer and seller actually meet

The selling price is set when a buyer and a seller reach agreement. It is not an average for the area or a figure calculated in advance, but the result of one negotiation on one day. That is why the selling price reflects things the registers never capture: the home’s current condition, how the layout works in everyday life, how much light comes in, whether there is a view, and how noise from the road or the neighbours is experienced. None of this is recorded in BBR (the Danish building register), and none of it is factored into the public valuation. Yet it is often these things that decide what a buyer is ultimately willing to pay.

It is also the reason why two homes with the same public valuation can sell for different prices. One may have been completely renovated recently, while the other still has a kitchen from the ’90s. One may appeal to a family with children, the other to a couple without children or to a buyer who sees rental potential. Different groups of buyers value different things, and that is reflected in the price. The difference between valuation and selling price largely comes down to the fact that the valuation looks at the group, while the selling price looks at the individual home and the individual buyer.

The market surrounding the sale also moves the figure. In a seller’s market, where demand outstrips supply, property prices can rise because several buyers are bidding on the same home. In a buyer’s market they can fall, because supply is greater than demand and buyers can pick and choose.

A concrete example shows the gap. A home with a public valuation of 6.000.000 kr. may meet a market that will only pay 5.200.000 kr. if demand in the area is weak. Conversely, the same valuation can be exceeded if demand is strong and several buyers are competing for the home. In other words, the valuation is not a price ceiling, nor is it a guarantee.

This is where the difference between valuation and selling price becomes practical. The valuation is the state’s calculated estimate for tax purposes, while the selling price is the amount the market actually lands on. If you want to know what your home is worth right now, you can get a free valuation from Brikk and use it as a benchmark before you decide when and how to sell.

How much the two figures can differ

Nobody can say in advance how big the difference between valuation and selling price will be in your case. But there are figures for what is normal. Differences of 15-25 % between the public valuation, an estate agent’s valuation and the actual sale price are entirely to be expected. The three figures will rarely land on the same amount. A gap between them is not a sign that anything is wrong.

The direction of the difference is closely linked to how the market is moving in your area. In areas with rising prices, the public valuation was on average 8-12 % below the actual selling price in home sales from 2025-2026. In other words, the valuation lags behind when prices rise, because it is based on comparable sales that have already been completed. Once the market has moved on from them, the gap between the two figures widens.

The difference can be far more pronounced than the average. In popular Copenhagen neighbourhoods, the sale price can be 20-50 % above the public property value, because demand for the right addresses is so strong. In areas with low demand, the picture is reversed. There, the public property value can approach or even exceed the actual selling price. It is the same mechanism pulling in opposite directions, depending on how many buyers are genuinely ready to buy.

That is also why the relationship between the public valuation and the selling price can never be reduced to a fixed figure. There is no rule of thumb you can multiply the valuation by to arrive at the selling price. The difference can go either way, and it depends largely on how well your home matches the average in the valuation model. A home that resembles its neighbour on every parameter will typically come closer to its valuation than a home with special qualities that the model does not capture.

That is exactly why it is worth knowing your own figure. A free valuation from Brikk can give you a benchmark for where your home stands right now, so you have something concrete to compare the two figures against.

Other types of valuation in a property sale

The public valuation is not the only figure you will come across in a property sale. Depending on the purpose, the figure comes from different sources and with varying degrees of accuracy.

• A sales valuation from an estate agent is based on a visit in person and specific, comparable sales. It is typically accurate to within ±5-7 % of the final selling price, but with bigger variations in areas where few homes change hands.

• Online property calculators give you a quick initial overview, but they carry an uncertainty of ±15-30 %.

• Banks and mortgage lenders use their own internal valuation models, combined with an estate agent’s valuation or a surveyor’s valuation. They do not base their lending on the public valuation.

• The surveyor’s valuation sets the market value of the property as a rental property and is used, among other things, to calculate the andelskrone (the value of a cooperative share). In a survey of 2.897 cooperative housing associations, the public valuation averaged 60 % of the surveyor’s valuation.

Use the figures correctly and get a market-based figure

Once you know the difference between the two figures, it becomes easier to use them correctly in practice.

• Never use the public property valuation as the starting point for an asking price. It is made for tax purposes and can differ from the market in either direction.

• Errors in the registers concerning floor area, buildings or plot conditions can skew the valuation. That is why it pays to check the details on Vurderingsportalen (the Danish property valuation portal).

• If the price-adjusted 2026 valuation differs by more than 20 % from an ordinary valuation, homeowners can request an ordinary valuation with the right to appeal.

So the public valuation tells you something about your tax, but not much about what a buyer would pay for your home right now. If you need a figure that follows the market, you can get a free valuation from Brikk and use it as the benchmark you base your decision on. Then you have both the state’s figure for tax and a market-based figure for your decision, and you know what each of them can be used for.