Are we approaching a Swedish housing slump? Nordregio researcher Anna Granath Hansson featured in several major media on the topic

Senior Research Fellow Anna Granath Hansson and her research on the increasingly strained Swedish housing market gains much attention in Swedish media. Granath Hansson has been featured in the paper Dagens Nyheter, the TV news program Nyhetsmorgon and radio P1.

Entering the housing market in Swedish larger towns is difficult, and often requires years on rental housing waiting lists or large enough savings and income to buy a home. In the future, those who do not have a home will find it even more difficult to enter the market. This says Anna Granath Hansson in an interview in Dagens Nyheter, warning about a Swedish housing slump. (DN: Forskaren varnar för bostadssmäll: Fler kommer att bo i misär).

There has been a long economic boom where people have taken large mortgages while the rental market has not been opened up sufficiently. Those who would otherwise end up on the street have been taken care of as far as possible, but the middle group, those who work and manage their social contract, have not been cared for.

Low-income groups that cannot afford to buy or keep a home and do not get access to rental housing will face an even tougher situation as competition increases. According to Granath Hansson, it is probable that more people will live in misery in Sweden due to the existing housing shortage.

Housing construction has for many years been seen as the major remedy against the Swedish housing shortage. Now, rising interest rates and other negative external factors are sharply reducing the number of construction starts. This calls for a more comprehensive approach to housing policy and Granath Hansson encourages policymakers to consider the needs of lower and mid-income groups in housing policies.

Granath Hansson was also interviewed on the popular morning tv show Nyhetsmorgon, talking about the challenges, risks and possible actions to fix the housing market. Watch it here.

In addition, Swedish public service radio Studio Ett devoted a section to the housing issue. In the interview, Granath Hansson explained that Sweden has long relied on new construction, but since the market has stalled and many difficult years are to be expected, we need to look at the existing housing we have and how it is distributed. How are housing queues organized and how do we use our municipal housing companies and so forth? Listen to the interview here (at 16.19).

Granath Hansson is currently working on two research projects, Strategic Housing and Collaborative Housing. See further below.