Two Lender Types. Two Logics.
In Danish property financing, the client encounters two fundamentally different counterparties: the mortgage credit institution and the commercial bank. They do not assess the same things. They do not finance the same things. They do not have the same risk appetite. Negotiating with them as if they were a single market is the most common strategic error we observe new clients making.
The Mortgage Credit Institution - lends against the brick and mortar
Mortgage credit institutions typically finance the first 60–80% of a property's value. They primarily assess two things: the property's market value (as determined by an independent valuer) and the property's ability to service the loan based on the current rental income level.
The player's personal income is secondary in this assessment. This means that a player – despite a short career perspective – in practice often has equally easy access to mortgage credit as a regular salaried employee, as long as the property's cash flow is robust and the valuer's report is clear.
This is a structural advantage: the player does not need to 'sell' their career to the mortgage credit institution. They merely need to purchase a property that supports its own loan. Our acquisition team filters properties based on this criterion long before we go to market.
The Commercial Bank - lends against the person
Commercial banks typically cover the top 5–20% of the financing – the portion that the mortgage credit institution will not undertake. Here, the player's personal credit profile is assessed directly, and it is here that biases have historically manifested most aggressively.
Many credit departments simply lack precedence for a player profile and therefore end up using a conservative template that effectively undervalues the client's creditworthiness. We present each client through a documented data framework: salary history, remaining contract length, image rights income, agent agreements, injury statistics for the position, and industry benchmarks for expected career longevity.
This framework has been developed in cooperation with the private banking departments of several major Danish commercial banks and allows the bank to assess risk accurately rather than cautiously. In practice, this saves the client 0.25–0.75 percentage points in interest margin – over a 30-year term, a significant sum.
How we structure a typical financing package
Mortgage Loan
Fixed-rate, 30-year, with or without interest-only periods depending on the phase.
Bank Loan 15%
Top-up financing with a fixed interest rate, typically a 10-year term.
Equity 25%
The client's own deposit – typically from accumulated cash income.
Liquidity Buffer
Separate from the financing, but documented to the bank as risk protection.
What We Never Accept
We do not accept variable rate loans as primary financing for a client in the early stages of their career. We do not accept short terms for top-up financing where the refinancing risk could impact the client during a vulnerable phase. We do not accept covenants that link loan terms to the player's continued contract status with a specific club.
These are the types of terms that appear harmless on a term sheet but can trigger serious problems in the event of injury, club transfer, or career termination. We consistently negotiate them out – or decline the financing offer.
"A good bank assesses a player based on what he or she will actually earn over the next five years. A generalist assesses him based on what a salaried employee earns over the next five years. The difference is the client's interest rate."
Read about Loan-to-Value
Our policy on loan-to-value ratios and loan types.