After years of housing shortage – thousands of apartments empty

After several years of alarms about housing shortages in our largest municipalities, many apartments are now suddenly empty. This is shown by a new survey from the newspaper Hem och Hyra.
Non-profit housing companies in our 50 largest municipalities testify to thousands of vacant apartments.
– There is an increase in vacancies in the stock, says Sanny Mattelin, CEO of AB Eidar Trollhättan’s housing company.

In Trollhättan, a newly renovated second home in the Lextorp district is one of 140 apartments that Eidar had available when the survey was done in August. Hem og hyra asked the public utility in the country’s 50 largest municipalities and thus found that the alarms about housing shortages had subsided. Large cities such as Örebro, Växjö, Karlstad and Trollhättan are suddenly witnessing vacancies – in the thousands in total.

– This is partly due to the fact that we have a greater number of people moving out of Trollhättan than moving in. But it is also geographically located to the socio-economic parts of the city, says Sanny Mattelin.

Reduced immigration one reason

According to him, the move is primarily due to a changed labor market in Trollhättan. The local business community is in demand for highly educated personnel such as engineers. While many who are looking for easier jobs chose – or were forced – to move to other locations or abroad, including to Great Britain.

Several other housing companies also cite a declining population base as an explanation, among other things as a result of reduced immigration. But also security issues and excessively high rental levels in new construction or after renovation are believed to play a role.

Better for those looking for housing

In Trollhättan, you don’t only see disadvantages of breaking the trend.

– You are not satisfied. But if you want to talk about a balanced housing market, then we now have an opportunity to actually accommodate fluctuations or upswings in industry and so on. So from a city perspective, it is not certain that it is negative.

Is it better for the customer looking for a home?

– Yes, it is. And you can choose as a consumer between us in the public utility or the private rental operators. And I think that is favorable for the customer, says Sanny Mattelin.