At Bullandö Marina in the Stockholm archipelago, Martin Ringholm is polishing his motorboat Eva, which will be in the water in just over a week.
— We had a smaller boat before, but during the pandemic we wanted to scale up and be able to live more on the lake. We rent it out for about three weeks a year, it feels good that it is being used and that others can share in it, he says.
Common with boat loans
Renting out is also a way of financing the boat, which is partly loan-financed.
— It is expensive to buy a boat and expensive to maintain. It’s nice if you can reduce the costs to a zero-sum game, says Martin Ringholm.
Several sharing services that TT spoke to testify that more people are thinking along the same lines. Interest has skyrocketed to rent out their stuff.
Martin Ringholm rents out his motorboat Eva when he is not using it.
At the boat-sharing company Skipperi, the number of boats that private individuals have listed on the platform has increased by 60 percent so far this year, compared to the same period the year before.
— We have more boats on the platform than ever before. There are many who want to cover the cost of owning a boat by renting it out, says the company’s CEO Axel Nordman.
Buying a boat with a loan is common, according to Alex Nordman. When both interest rates and fuel prices rise, the hobby becomes more expensive.
— Many see boating as their absolute greatest interest. You don’t want to be without it, but then you may have to be a little smart about how you engage in it, he says.
Opportunity on the driveway
The company My Camper notices the same trend. It is a service where private individuals can rent and lease, among other things, mobile homes.
During the first months of the year, the number of vehicles on the platform has tripled in Sweden, according to the company’s CEO Rickard Magnusson. The trend looks similar in the rest of the Nordic region.
— Motorhomes are expensive and cost money to run. People twist and turn the opportunities they have now. And then they look out on the driveway and then this opportunity is there, he says.
The car-sharing service Go More is also noticing increased interest. According to Sweden manager Klara Bergkvist, the company has seen a large increase in both the number of cars on the platform and the number of rentals.
Go More recently merged with a competitor, which may affect the statistics, but according to Klara Bergkvist, the increase started even before that.
— Many car owners cite as a reason that they want to make ends meet and see the car as an opportunity for extra income. But an influencing factor is also that people become more aware of the climate and want to do good for themselves, she says.
On Hygglo’s platform, less capital-intensive gadgets than cars, boats and mobile homes are rented out. It can be anything from hedge trimmers to roof rails and popcorn machines.
Thinking about alternatives
Ola Degerfors, the company’s CEO and founder, says that interest in renting out has increased by 20-30 percent since August last year. During the spring, the number of transactions has also skyrocketed.
— For us, the biggest challenge is to change consumption behaviour. When the economy is worse, people think again about different alternatives, and then we can be such an alternative. I think we will see, and to some extent have already seen, such an effect, he says.
In addition to the boat on Bullandö, Martin Ringholm also rents out his car. For him it is nothing new, he has used the rental services for several years.
He partly believes that economic driving forces are behind more people renting out, but that it is also due to the increasing acceptance of letting others share in one’s stuff.
“The sharing economy is here, there are platforms that make it easy and it can ease the financial burden,” he says.