What does it cost to borrow? An overview of all the costs of a loan

Here you get a complete, concrete overview of what it costs to borrow when you take out, and later pay off, a Danish mortgage loan (realkreditlån) or home loan. The true price is not just the interest rate. It is the sum of one-off fees, ongoing contributions and the costs that crop up when the loan one day has to be paid off.

The article goes through each cost component one by one: the contribution rate (bidragssats), price spread (kursskæring), brokerage (kurtage), loan processing fee (lånesagsgebyr), registration fee (tinglysningsafgift), APR (ÅOP) and the costs of paying off the loan. The aim is for you to be able to judge the real price before you sign, rather than discovering it afterwards.

A couple of concrete examples show how big the difference can be. On a 30-year fixed-rate loan of 1.000.000 kr. with a 3 per cent borrowing rate, the APR varies between 3,9 per cent and 5,3 per cent, depending on the contribution rate, price loss (kurstab) and arrangement fees. In the worked example later in the article, the total costs of buying a home for 2.500.000 kr. come to 65.600 kr.

Since 1 January 2026, the variable registration fee on mortgage deeds (pantebreve) has been 1,25 per cent of the amount of the deed, and the fixed fee is 1.825 kr.

Contribution rate: the annual cost of borrowing

The contribution rate is the annual cost you pay the mortgage lender for having the loan. It runs alongside the interest, and it does not disappear when interest rates fall. So know how much it is before you compare offers.

The calculation is simple: annual cost in kroner = outstanding debt × contribution rate. If you borrow 2 million kr. at a contribution rate of 0,85 per cent, that gives 2.000.000 × 0,0085 = 17.000 kr. a year. That is roughly 1.417 kr. a month. Put in your own figures, and you have your annual cost without guesswork.

The contribution rate follows the loan-to-value ratio, i.e. how large a share of the home’s value you borrow. However, the rate on an existing loan does not fall by itself when the home rises in value. As a rule, it is set on the basis of the lender’s prices and the home’s value at the time you took out the loan. At Nordea Kredit, for example, the rate is only recalculated from a new valuation if you increase the loan by at least 100.000 kr. or choose a new interest-only period of more than 3 years. Ask your lender which rules apply to your loan.

An interest-only period pulls in the opposite direction. If you choose to defer repayments, the contribution rate is higher than on a loan with repayments. The higher contribution rate feeds straight into your payment, so the saving from deferring repayments is smaller than it looks on paper.

The interest rate on a fixed-rate loan is typically between 4 and 5 per cent. The contribution rate comes on top, and it must be included in your calculation when you assess what the loan really costs a year.

Price spread and brokerage on mortgage loans

Brokerage and the price spread are two costs that are easy to overlook, because they never appear as a separate line on a bill or in a payment summary. They are hidden in the price. If you only look at the interest rate, you risk missing them altogether.

At Totalkredit and Realkredit Danmark, brokerage is called afregningsprovision (settlement commission), and it is 0,15 per cent of the loan’s market value when the loan is paid out.

The price spread, also called the price deduction (kursfradrag), is 0,20 price points on payout at Totalkredit and 0,25 price points at Realkredit Danmark. When an adjustable-rate loan is refinanced, the deduction is 0,20-0,30 price points (price sheets valid as of 1 July and 23 September 2026).

Brokerage and the price spread are deducted directly from the price or the settlement, so you may need to convert them into kroner to see what they cost.

An example shows the order of magnitude. On a mortgage loan of 2 million kr., equivalent to 80 per cent of a purchase price of 2,5 million kr., brokerage and the price spread together come to about 7.000 kr. That is money that disappears in the settlement without ever appearing as an item of its own.

Loan processing fee and other arrangement fees

The loan processing fee is one of the arrangement fees you can easily look up as a fixed amount in the price list. That makes it a good place to start when you are weighing up where to take out your loan.

The price lists show the level. Realkredit Danmark charges a loan processing fee of 4.000 kr. per loan and a handling fee of 4.000 kr. for the property case (price sheet of 23 September 2026). Totalkredit charges up to 4.000 kr. per loan (price sheet of 1 July 2026), and the bank’s own fee comes on top. At Nykredit Bank, case handling costs 4.600-5.000 kr., depending on the customer programme (price list of 1 July 2026).

Fees vary from lender to lender and from bank to bank, so check each bank’s and each lender’s price list before you choose.

The loan processing fee is only one item among several, though. At Nordea, the bank’s handling of a mortgage loan for a purchase, refinancing or additional borrowing costs 4.000 kr., and paying off a loan costs 2.000 kr., except when it is paid off in connection with a sale, where a separate price applies (price list valid from 15 June 2026). On top of that come brokerage, the price spread and registration.

In their price book of 22 June 2026, Ringkjøbing Landbobank and Nordjyske Bank list a TK loan processing fee (for Totalkredit loans) of 4.000 kr. An extra loan offer costs 500 kr., while the first is free, and the TK redemption fee is 750 kr. per loan.

A fixed-price agreement (fastkursaftale), also known as price hedging, typically costs between 500 and 1.000 kr. plus a price deduction. A valuation fee is around 1.650 kr.

Notice how the small amounts add up. A loan processing fee, a fixed-price agreement and a valuation can easily exceed 6.000 kr. between them, before the loan itself has even been set up.

Registration fee on the mortgage deed: a fixed fee plus a percentage of the principal

From 1 January 2026, the registration fee for mortgage deeds on real property and cooperative housing (andelsboliger) is 1,25 per cent of the secured amount plus a fixed fee of 1.825 kr. The variable part of the fee is rounded up to the nearest 100 kr.

Note that the rounding only makes a difference on the small mortgage deed. At 500.000 kr., rounding lifts the amount from 6.250 kr. to 6.300 kr., i.e. 50 kr. extra. At 3.000.000 kr., the amount happens to be 37.500 kr., which is already divisible by 100, so nothing happens here.

It is worth comparing the mortgage deed fee with the title deed fee (skødeafgift), as you typically pay both in the same purchase. In 2026, the title deed fee is 0,6 per cent of the purchase price plus 1.850 kr. For an owner-occupied home costing 3 million kr., that comes to 19.850 kr. in title deed fee. With a mortgage deed of 3 million kr., 39.325 kr. in mortgage deed fee comes on top, making 59.175 kr. in registration fees alone, before you have even counted the contribution rate, brokerage or arrangement fees.

As the buyer, you pay the mortgage deed fee, because it is your loan that is being registered, and payment is made digitally when the mortgage deed is submitted for registration at tinglysning.dk. When refinancing, where the new mortgage replaces an existing mortgage on the same property, you pay the fixed fee of 1.825 kr. and only 1,25 per cent of the part of the new mortgage deed that exceeds the old one. If the fee is not paid at registration, it is increased by 5 per cent, but by at least 200 kr.

APR: how it brings the loan’s costs together

APR is the one percentage that combines both the one-off costs and the ongoing costs in a single figure. Instead of adding up the loan processing fee, registration, price loss and contribution yourself, you can use the APR as a benchmark when you compare two offers.

Take the example again of a loan of 2 million kr. over 30 years with a contribution rate of 0,85 per cent. The contribution of about 17.000 kr. in the first year is an ongoing cost that the APR counts over the loan’s entire term, however long you yourself keep the loan.

The APR also covers the costs that are paid only once, when you take out the loan. A good example is the price loss. If you take out a loan of 2 million kr. at a price of 98, only 1.960.000 kr. is paid out to you. The price loss is 2 per cent of 2.000.000 kr., i.e. 40.000 kr., and it is part of what you pay to get the loan.

How high the APR ends up depends on exactly the components you have just seen. For a 30-year fixed-rate loan with a 3 per cent borrowing rate and a principal of 1.000.000 kr., the APR varies between 3,9 and 5,3 per cent depending on the contribution rate, price loss and arrangement fees. It is the same type of loan, but the range shows how much the individual costs move the total price.

The costs of paying off your loan

A loan has costs that only show up when it comes to an end. The costs of paying off a loan are not just the outstanding debt, and it is worth knowing them before you plan to sell, refinance or get out of the loan early.

Paying off a loan typically involves these components:

• The price of the bonds behind the loan, i.e. the price you have to pay to get out of them

• Brokerage and trading costs for buying back the bonds

• A redemption or handling fee

• Differential interest (differencerente) or a period adjustment (terminsregulering), if you pay off the loan partway through a payment period

• Price spread, if the loan is being refinanced at the same time

• New borrowing costs, if you take out a new loan at the same time

The size of the individual items varies. The redemption or handling fee is typically 750 to 2.000 kr., while the bank’s fee for handling the repayment of a mortgage loan is typically 3.000 to 6.000 kr. In total, paying off a mortgage loan early can add up to 10.000 to 20.000 kr., depending on the size of the loan and bond prices.

The difference between the two options is over 20.000 kr., and it comes down solely to whether you pay off the loan at the market price or wait for the auction.

F5 loans follow a different logic. As a rule, an F5 loan can only be paid off at a price of 100 in connection with the interest rate adjustment auction itself, and outside it you pay the current market price for the bonds. If interest rates have fallen since, the price is often above 100, and early repayment then becomes expensive.

F5 loans are refinanced every five years on a fixed payment date. At Nordea Kredit, refinancing takes place on 1 January, 1 April or 1 October, and other lenders also refinance on 1 July. At refinancing, you can get out at a price of 100 if you give notice to terminate the loan before the deadline. If you are planning to sell or refinance, that is the date to aim for.

The total cost of a mortgage loan: how to assess the real price

When you add up all the individual items, you get the total cost of the mortgage loan. Here you can see what that looks like in practice for an actual home purchase.

For a home costing 2.500.000 kr., the calculation might look like this: the title deed fee is 16.850 kr. The registration fee for the mortgage loan is 8.125 kr. when 75 per cent of the loan can reuse an existing mortgage, and the registration fee for a home loan of 410.000 kr. is 7.025 kr.

On top of that come handling fees at the bank and mortgage lender of 9.000 kr., brokerage and price spread of 7.000 kr., 7.600 kr. for arranging the home loan and 10.000 kr. for two months of price hedging.

In total, the costs come to 65.600 kr., which is 2,62 per cent of the purchase price. Notice that price hedging and handling fees together make up just under 30 per cent of the amount – items that rarely stand out in a loan offer but weigh heavily on your finances.

If you refinance later, it typically costs 10.000 to 30.000 kr. Where you land in that range depends on the size of the loan, the price, the bank’s fees and the registration fees.

An example of how the one-off costs of refinancing can break down:

• A fee to the bank or mortgage lender of 8.500 kr.

• A fixed registration fee to the state of 1.825 kr., if the loan is not increased

• Brokerage and price spread of 4.850 kr.

Moving a mortgage loan to another lender is in practice a refinancing: the old loan is paid off and a new one is taken out, with fees, brokerage, price spread and registration. So only move the loan if the lower payment or better terms can earn back the costs.

One thing blurs the picture when you work out whether refinancing pays off: interest and contributions are tax-deductible, so the real saving after tax is smaller than the nominal one. What matters is the payback period, i.e. how many months it takes for the lower payment to cover the costs of refinancing. If it is shorter than the time you expect to keep the loan, refinancing makes sense.

Include the full price when you compare loans

A loan’s costs consist of three parts, and you need to include all three when you compare two offers:

• One-off costs, which you pay when you take out the loan, for example the loan processing fee, registration fee and price spread.

• Ongoing contributions, i.e. the contribution rate, paid every year for as long as the loan runs.

• Any costs of paying off the loan if it has to be ended early, for example on a sale or refinancing.

Only if all three parts are included in the calculation can you genuinely compare two loan offers. That is why you should ask for the APR and a breakdown of every fee when you have the offers in front of you. The APR converts the one-off costs into an annual percentage and makes it easier to see the real difference between two loans that otherwise look the same on paper.

Two loans with the same nominal interest rate can have very different total costs, because the contribution rate and fees vary from lender to lender. The lowest interest rate is therefore not necessarily the cheapest loan. An offer with a slightly higher interest rate but a lower contribution rate and fewer fees may well end up costing you less over the life of the loan.

The most important conclusion for you as a private borrower is to calculate over the entire life of the loan before you decide. That means you also need to consider how likely it is that you will sell the home or refinance the loan along the way, because those are exactly the situations in which the costs of paying off the loan crop up and can change the picture. A loan that looks cheap today can turn out to be expensive if you need to get out of it in a few years.

Ask your bank for the APR and a full breakdown of fees on the specific offer, and weigh the three parts against each other before you sign.