Unless you have a family with kids there is no point in going to DK. Your quality of life will be significantly worse.
If you insist on going to Western Europe then Germany, Austria or NL are much better places to be.
Try living in SF on US$100k.
Source: I supported myself + 2 others, and we lived very generously for a few years on pretty much that salary.
There are plenty of other places in EU with better tradeoffs.
If you can work remotely, small countries in the balkans / southern europe (just avoid the high tax behemoths doomed to decline: italy, spain, france, greece) will be way better.
As a foreigner, banks would’ve been very reticent about giving him a bank loan, and he would’ve had to down-pay at least 20% of his mortgage.
In other words: I find your friend’s case extremely unlikely and probably made up.
FYI: most people’s expenses go _down_ by buying in Denmark. The interest rates are stupidly low, in some cases even negative, you can pause principal reimbursement for 10 years, and your tax rate goes down.
I find your remarks incredibly entitled and shortsighted most like coming from the need to defend your home country.
In France you can borrow with a 5-15% down payment. In Denmark, as a Dane, you can easily get a mortgage with a 5-10% down payment. As a foreigner, it’s almost impossible to get with less than 20%. I’m being asked for 30% by my bank (because of the fact I own my own company).
It’s one of the things I absolutely despise about Denmark.
I apologise if I’ve come across as entitled—not quite sure how, however you’re right that this is a topic I feel strongly about.