You need to come up with 6 month worth of rent to start renting? That's massive. It basically means most would need to borrow that money. Is that supposed to be a good thing?
I'm glad that illegal here, that's abusive. Personally I avoided any ad that required more than 2 month total upfront. Thankfully the local market allowed it. If I wanted to put a massive deposit I'd buy, not rent.
A lot of people have that on hand in Denmark or can get a loan from their bank. You also don't have to pay rent the last 1 to 3 months for your previous place, so it's not as bad as it sound.
People in USA live a lot more paycheck-to-paycheck than in the rest of the world.
For sure. Think about the damage that can be done to hardwood floors during move-out, for example. That's one easy way that a unit can be accidentally damaged, even by a tenant who is generally very careful.
Of course, you can still recover payment by suing, but that's obviously more difficult (especially if the former tenant has moved to another city/state).
Denmark allows for 3 months deposit plus 3 months rents upfront, so you have to be able to come up with 6 months rent total to get an apartment.
(market here is very hot, so rental apartments have no problem getting 6 months rent)
When you "quit" living in the apartment, you can use the 3 months prepaid rent, so you don't have to pay rent the last 3 months.