Oeystein Olsen on housing tax
From NRK - Nyhetsmorgen om boligbeskatning ved Øystein Olsen; Tuva Moflag - AP og Hans Andreas Limi - FRP · · Business Norway
“Mitt hovedpoeng er at det å beskatte hardt etter økonomenes modell, det å eie egen bolig, ja, det gjør det dyrere å bo og det rammer da særlig de med moderate eller lavere inntekter og ikke minst unge.”
On , Oeystein Olsen, Governor at Norges Bank, spoke about housing tax during NRK - Nyhetsmorgen om boligbeskatning ved Øystein Olsen; Tuva Moflag - AP og Hans Andreas Limi - FRP on Business Norway.
About Oeystein Olsen
Øystein Olsen, former governor of Norges Bank and now affiliated with the think tank Civita, has spoken publicly about housing taxation and central bank independence. In a May 2026 interview on NRK, Olsen argued against heavy taxation of owner-occupied housing, stating that it makes housing more expensive and particularly affects those with moderate or lower incomes, as well as young people. He described the current direction of housing policy as a break with the approach historically pursued by the Labour Party. Olsen also said that taxing housing would not necessarily lead to more productive investments elsewhere in the economy. In a separate Civita podcast in May 2026, Olsen discussed the mandate of Norges Bank. He noted that he participated in the 2001 transition to an inflation-targeting framework and said the central bank’s primary task should remain preserving the value of money. Olsen expressed skepticism about proposals to significantly change the bank’s mandate, calling such discussions "confusing" and "not fruitful." He added that while politicians have tools to influence economic stability, they cannot control exchange rates or external shocks, and that promising interest rate cuts is "a bit much."