THE IDEA WAS BORN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CARPORT

The story

The idea for 21-5 was born at the end of 2008 by husband and wife team Laila and Anders. The starting point was many years of working in real estate both in Denmark and abroad.

Both have backgrounds in real estate, and Laila had worked with homes abroad for several years.

In 2007, Laila and Anders started a real estate company with the ambition to become Denmark's preferred real estate agent for holiday homes abroad.

In September 2008, the financial crisis hit the world and the phones stopped ringing. The company had gotten off to a great start, but was hit hard by the crisis as virtually all purchases of holiday homes abroad stopped almost overnight.

OVER LUNCH IN NOVEMBER 2008

The Idea to 21-5

Inadvertently, the financial crisis at the end of 2008 gave Laila and Anders plenty of time, there weren't many buyers in the market. Over lunch in November 2008, they had a chance brainstorm. Many Danish families had bought a holiday home abroad in the early 2000s. Many still had the dream but hadn't bought yet. What were the experiences of both types of families?

Facts and ideas were flying around, and suddenly it was as if someone had lit a lamp between them: Why not get more families together and create holiday homes for the families to share, and also take care of all the hassle that comes with owning homes abroad?

The foundation for 21-5 was laid and that was the beginning of 21-5.

The very first day, that they came up with the 21-5 formula, they wanted to make it easier for Danish families to fulfill their dream of owning holiday homes abroad, and thereby create more happiness in their family lives.

Many believe that the concept originated abroad and has been around for many years. But it hasn’t. The idea was born on a November day in 2008 at the bottom of a carport in Denmark, north of Copenhagen.

The concept is being developed

The original concept

The concept was developed during of 2009 and 2010. There are many aspects to the concept, and when you are as thorough as they were, it takes time. Everything had to be developed from scratch because there was no shoulder to look over, no one had done this before.

The final concept was ready by the end of 2010, but the financial crisis was still raging, so it took hard work and a while to find the first families.

THE LONG HAUL

The first owner associations

We opened the first owner association at the end of 2010. Continuous adjustments were made to both the set-up and the sales material, and in June 2012 the first owner association was formed. It was fully subscribed with 21 families in the spring of 2013.

The next owner association was formed and fully subscribed at the end of 2013, and in 2014 two owner associations with 21 families were fully subscribed. By the end of 2014, 21-5 had outgrown the small office in the carport, so we looked for another location.

A NEW CHAPTER

From the carport to a larger office

In early 2015, 21-5 purchased and completely renovated an office building. We moved into the new office in May 2015 with a team of 10 people. At that time, we couldn't occupy the whole building ourselves, so we rented offices and desks to friends and acquaintances.

In the beginning, 6 small companies shared the beautiful property. As time went on and more people joined the 21-5 team, in the end the last tenant had to move out and we took up the entire property.

PANDEMIC

Stronger and more owner associations than ever

Even with the most thorough preparation and the best of intentions, things rarely go as expected. No one was prepared for what happened in the spring of 2020. The world shut down and everyone in 21-5 was sent home. Some were able to work from home, others couldn't do their jobs at all.

The shutdown was long and hard - we missed each other a lot during that time.

Many processes in 21-5 were adjusted and changed. We got much better at managing many tasks remotely, we just had to. All teams had to think outtside the box, a lot of good things came out of that process. In fact, the whole of 21-5 has changed for the better because we were forced to.

21-5 was originally founded during the financial crisis, so the ability to adapt is deep in our DNA. 21-5 came out of the pandemic stronger than ever – because giving up is never an option in 21-5.

As more and more families became interested in our concept, we grew beyond the borders of Denmark, and the first Swedish 21-5 group was founded in the fall of 2020. In 2021, more owner associationS were founded than ever before. Many families wanted something to look forward to after the pandemic.

As the demand grew, more and more passionate team members joined us, but we still worked mostly from home. When we returned to the office, after the pandemic had subsided, we didn’t have enough office space. We looked for a new environment and moved to a new and larger office, which is where we are today.

Today

Grateful & proud

We are extremely grateful to be able to do what we love every day. Improving the quality of life and fulfilling dreams by creating and managing unique holiday homes. 21-5 has succeeded in creating a whole new way of owning holiday homes. The journey has been - and continues to be - a great privilege.

Today, we have formed more than 60 owner associations and have more than 1,200 happy families, and we have purchased almost 300 holiday homes to our 21-5 families. We are now ready to go further, which is why we now offer our concept internationally. We are looking forward to creating more owner associations and more room for love.

21-5 A/S is owned and managed by Anders Heisel - and Laila and Anders Køj.

Welcome to 21-5, we create room for love

media from cdn

Meet the 21-5 team

21-5 is made up of ultra-passionate people who create the best environment for our 21-5 families every day.