Student with a butler

One thing that I’ll need when I move to Oslo is a place to stay. The embassy can help find an flat and will support me with 3000 NOK/month for living costs. I have been looking at www.hybel.no to see what prices I can expect and they are quite higher than in Aalborg. A two-room flat is more than 7000 NOK/month and a room in shared flat is from 3500 NOK/month and up.

The other day a friend of mine was so kind as to share an article with me, the main point of the article is that there is a lag of housing in Oslo and that this problem will escalate the coming years to a state where a two-room flat in Oslo by 2016 will be 15.000 NOK/month. But it is not all bad news apparently the Norwegians (Danish, Norwegian) have invented a fantastic concept for study flats – flats with a servant… Unfortunately this concept has yet to be introduced in Oslo so I guess I still have to do my own grocery shopping and such. But it might be just the same since I think the price tag of 6900 NOK/month would be a little on the expensive side for me anyway. If you want to read more about the concept you can go to the website of Sorbonne the company behind the concept.


UPDATE: I just read this article today about the housing market in Oslo it is in English and touches on some of the same issues as the Norwegian article: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/04/18/oslo-becoming-like-manhattan/

Food

If you have been watching the Norwegian news yesterday you will no doubt have heard about the new report “Mat, makt og avmakt – om styrkeforholdene I verdikjeden for mat” (Food, Power and Powerlessness – about the balance of power in the value chain for food) published yesterday. The report shows that in 2008 Norway had the highest food prices in the whole of Europe and that the prices was 55% higher than the average European prices. The most expensive food products are Norwegian meat, bread and agricultural products like eggs, milk and cheese. As Denmark has the second highest food prices in Europe I guess that coming from Denmark I am somewhat prepared but even higher prices than what I am paying now seems very expensive.

 The price level for food and nonalcoholic beverages compared to the price level in the EU, 2000-2008. (NOU 2011:4)