Danish loans are a bit special, though, as in most people don't pay them down, but just use them as a way of having a fixed rent. At least that's my experience, all my danish family own their houses, but have almost done no real payments on the loans. Whenever they've paid down a bit, that is just refinanced to a new loan so they get cash, aggressively promoted by the banks. Or the equity is just based on a hope that the loan will stay the same but the value of the property increase. Which it certainly has not.