That's more or less what Copenhagen's done, though it dates back to some old history rather than being really carefully planned out this way. Most of the centra

That's more or less what Copenhagen's done, though it dates back to some old history rather than being really carefully planned out this way. Most of the central city apartments are structured as either owner-occupied cooperatives, or nonprofit housing associations, and only natural people can buy into (in the former) or rent (in the latter) such property. Furthermore they have to be resident natural people, meaning that you declare the apartment as your primary residence, so that cuts out people buying for investment rather than housing purposes. Or rather you can invest, but only in one unit at a time. It also cuts out speculation from people who don't live in Denmark, unless they lie and say they do. But beyond the risk of being caught directly, declaring Danish residency makes you liable for Danish income tax, which is not something most wealthy foreigners want. As a result, despite Copenhagen getting really popular as a culinary/cultural/etc. destination in the past decade, housing is still cheapish (1-bd ~$800-1100/mo, 2-bd ~$1300-1600/mo).