In mapping carried out by Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling in 2022, it could be established that emigration from Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö increased by a whopping 77 percent since the year 2000.
This development gained further momentum during the pandemic, when many people got used to working at home and did not feel as bound to workplaces located in big cities.
– More flexible forms of home work have led more people to buy homes where you can get more living space for the money, said Marcus SvanbergCEO at Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling, i a press release then.
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Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
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Götene municipality launched a campaign
But many Swedish towns and municipalities continue to struggle to attract residents who want to settle in the countryside. One of these is Götene municipality, which, to remedy the problem, rolled out a campaign at the end of June.
This consisted of selling plots in the municipality – for just one kroner per square metre.
– Should this lead to a family with children wanting to build a house in our municipality, it would be absolutely fantastic and it is something that we seem to be succeeding in, said Johan Månssonchairman of the municipal board, to SVT West then.
READ MORE: Plots of land are sold here for one kroner per square metre
Götene municipality circumscribed throughout the world
If the campaign paid off? You can safely say that. The initiative was not only picked up by Swedish media, but also international media. Including Sarajevo Times, Euronews and Business Insider.
“This idyllic Swedish town is selling land for the price of a cup of coffee,” reads the headline from the US CNN as reported on the campaign.
“This scenic town in Sweden sells cheap land to get more people to move there”, is the headline on the channel CNBC.
And when DN comes into contact with the chairman of the municipal board, Johan Månsson, he gets ready for an interview with the venerable Washington Post.
Götene municipality’s campaign has been noticed by, among others, CNN. Photo: Ron Harris/AP/TTKommunstyrelsen chairman: “Surrealistic”
The viral campaign caused the switchboard in the town hall to be down and a hail of requests from people beyond Sweden’s borders, including Argentina and India, according to DN.
When News24 comes into contact with Johan Månsson, he states that the sale of the lots is paused and will resume on August 7. This is to be able to handle all the thousands of requests for interest from all over the world.
“In all likelihood, we will break a record number of house plots sold in just a few days and with all the media attention we have received marketing for our municipality worth fantasy sums. It is still difficult for all of us to understand what it is that has really happened”, he writes in a comment.
Photo: Henrik Holmberg/TT
Because the impact the campaign had was nothing that the small municipality in Västgötland could even imagine.
“What we in Götene municipality have witnessed in the last week is extremely difficult to describe in words. Surreal, completely incomparable and above all incredibly cool and fun, not least for all our municipality residents. We are of course completely taken aback, not in our wildest imaginations would we have thought that our Santa campaign would become a huge viral and media snowball that rolls across the globe at a furious pace and only grows bigger and bigger with each passing day,” writes Månsson to News24.
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