Exploring the Prerequisites to Increase Real Estate Market Transparency in Sweden

Sammanfattning: In the 2018 edition of the JLL Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI), Sweden was ranked the 10th most transparent real estate market in the world, categorized as ‘Highly Transparent’. For the most part, Sweden has held a similar position since the measurements started in 1999. Transparency on a real estate market generally attracts foreign real estate investments and tenants as well as increasing global competitiveness. It also streamlines work processes in many real estate professions through comprehensive real estate market information and comprehensible legal frameworks, transaction processes and methods of monitoring different sustainability metrics. This study explores the prerequisites for Sweden to attain a better position in the index by increasing its degree of real estate market transparency, with the long-term goal in having Sweden reaping more of the benefits in having a highly transparent real estate market. This is done in two ways. First is through a critical analysis of the index’s methodology for assessing if ranks and scores within the different index categories are produced fairly. Secondly, different industry actors are interviewed to identify in what areas Sweden lags behind compared to more transparent markets, in which way they would like to see transparency improved in Sweden and the main barriers in implementing projects that would increase real estate market transparency and ways of overcoming them. An examination of the index methodology shows a changing methodology from year to year, which indicates a steady increase in real estate market transparency in Sweden. Interview findings support a generally positive view on transparency, facilitating decision making for real estate investments, but the level of preferred transparency differs between net sellers and buyers. It is therefore questionable if increasing real estate market transparency would provide significantly increased utility for some market actors with longer investment horizons and market knowledge through extensive business networks. Main suggestions for improving real estate transparency in Sweden include measures for data standards, increasing the level of data disclosure and information platforms for such standardized, disclosed data. The study suggests that the main barriers for implementing this could be conceptualized as a Prisoners’ dilemma and that institutional bodies could act as trustworthy partners in further opening up real estate market information.