Part-time living in rural municipalities

The project addresses the increasing part-time living in Danish rural areas and the specific planning challenges that this entails for rural municipalities. As more year-round homes are used on a part-time basis — often outside traditional cottage areas — new questions arise about residential use, local development, and municipal regulation.

The project builds on the results of the research project “Residence obligation as a planning tool in rural areas: A bird on the roof or a cuckoo cub in the nest?” , which has shown that there are significant differences between the needs and practices of municipalities in relation to the regulation of residence obligation and part-time living.

The current pilot project has been developed as a practice-oriented follow-up initiative. The aim is to give municipalities insight into how part-time living is regulated and managed in other rural municipalities — including the use of the flexible housing scheme and other housing regulation tools. The project will contribute to strengthening knowledge sharing and reflection across municipalities and support the development of local approaches that take into account different contexts and needs.

The project also aims to qualify and refine the debate on part-time living and the possibilities of municipalities to act in a reality characterized by diverse interests and needs for the development of the housing stock and mobility to and from rural municipalities.

The project forms part of a multi-year research effort focusing on place development in a translocal perspective and seeks to develop new knowledge about housing forms, settlement patterns and planning in rural areas.

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