Sveriges småhusmarknad - en analys av den negativa utvecklingen

Sammanfattning: Single-family housing is a relatively common type of housing in Sweden. Even though the demand for this type of housing is higher than the supply, the share of new construction is decreasing in favor of multi-family housing. There has been a significant increase in new housing construction as of late, however the amount of new single-family housing has remained constant. The purpose of this paper is to answer questions concerning the current state and recent development of the Swedish housing market, focusing on single-family housing. Single-family housing is defined in this paper as single-family detached houses, terraced houses, chain houses or duplex houses. The Swedish housing market contains a lot of entities like governing bodies and contractors that are all, in some extent, involved in process towards the finished product. To draw conclusions about this current trend, an important part is to identify the key entities that are responsible. Municipalities and a representative of developers were interviewed to give different views on the matter. These interviews were then analyzed and from there, conclusions were drawn. This study concludes that the main issue is the lack of land available to develop. Physical hindrance, regulations and weak incentives for single-family housing are all pointed to as partial explanations. The municipalities denied that they would be avoiding development to economically gain from it. Instead, they pointed to the possible expansion of communal services as a deacceleration force. The regulations were pointed to by some to be counteracting single-family housing meanwhile other did not feel like the regulations favored any specific housing-type. There is negative connotation beside single-family housing and that is partly justified given the increased amount of land needed in contrast to multi-family housing. Many municipalities feel however that single-family housing is an important part of their housing supply. In the end a possible solution to the downwards trend was for the state to become more active with economic incentives for specific housing types or a deeper discussion around single-family housing and sustainability.