DPP withdraws from property agreement

The Danish People’s Party has withdrawn from the agreement on new property valuations, according to the party’s chairman, Morten Messerschmidt, in an interview with DR. The party has otherwise been part of the agreement since 2016. DF housing spokesman Nick Zimmermann told Ritzau that the party had struggled in discussions on the subject. “We have had big confrontations, but it has been necessary, because property is one of the biggest investments you make in your life. But when you create a housing tax system that doesn’t give much more than a stomach ache, we no longer want to legitimise it.”
     When asked whether it is better to stay in the agreement group and continue working rather than walking, Zimmermann answers: “It has not been useful to sit at the table so far. After the battles I have fought on behalf of DF, and it has sometimes been loud, I have to say that the government is not prepared to make the drastic changes that are needed.”
     Messerschmidt explains to DR that there is a long way from what the parties to the settlement agreed on in 2016 and 2017 to the way the agreement works now. On September 11, the Valuation Board sent out new preliminary property assessments to 1.7 million homeowners. Since then, many could see that according to the new assessment, their land was worth more than the property overall. This means that, in theory, the house has a negative value. The Minister of Taxation has previously stated that up to 68,000 assessments must be reviewed for errors. These are precisely those cases where the land valuation is higher than the value of the property. /ritzau/