Bolånetakets påverkan på efterfrågan av hyresrättslägenheter

Sammanfattning: This Degree project is a study about the Mortgage Cap, introduced in October of 2010, and its impact on the demand for rented apartments. The mortgage cap was introduced to decrease the households’ loan-to-value ratio and thereby increase their economical resistance during times of financial instability. The past ten years Swedish households have continuously increased their average loan-to-value ratio. In an attempt prevent this negative development Finansinspektionen introduced a mortgage cap stating that banks should no longer grant mortgages corresponding to more than 85 percent of the property’s market value. In order to answer the main question two methods were used both a survey and two interviews. The survey was sent out to people representing real estate companies in medium-sized Swedish cities. 35 percent of the recipients answered the survey. To acquire more in-depth information two interviews were performed, one with a representative from Stockholm’s Public Housing Office, and the other with a representative from the Swedish National Housing Credit Guarantee Board. Both the results from the survey and the interviews indicated that the introduction of the mortgage cap did not affect the demand for rented apartments. The demand for rented apartments is increasing all over Sweden but the mortgage cap doesn’t seem to play any part in this development. Finally it seems the mortgage cap has achieved its main purpose considering that the average loan-to-value ratio of Swedish households have decreased for the first time in ten years. However the connection between the market for rented apartments and the market for mortgages seems to be quite complex. Therefore it may be hard to tell how changes on one market would affect the other.