One in four young adults in Sweden still lives at home with their parents, a trend that reflects growing challenges in the housing market, according to a new report from the Swedish Tenants’ Association. The trend is particularly pronounced in metropolitan areas such as Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Hyresgästföreningen, the Swedish Tenants’ Association, conducts a biennial survey on the housing situation of Swedes between the ages of 20 and 27. This year’s edition shows that about 250,000 young adults, or 26%, are still living with their parents. When the first report was published in 1997, only 15% of young adults were still living at home.
Of those living at home, 77% would like to live elsewhere. At the same time, one in three young adults fears that they will not be able to find accommodation in the future.
In the Göteborg region, 24% live at home with their parents, and two in five report having received financial support from their parents in the past year. About 38% of all young adults say they are hesitating to start a family because of the housing market situation.
– It is worrying that the housing situation for young people is not improving. Not only do young people face difficulties in finding accommodation, but they may also face harassment, unscrupulous landlords, extortionate rents or be forced to stay at home. Politicians must now start to see the seriousness of the situation and take responsibility, said Beatrice Klein, housing policy strategist for the Swedish Tenants’ Union’s Western Sweden region, in a press release.
“Broken housing market”
In Stockholm, 34 percent of 20- to 27-year-olds still live at home, with 73 percent saying they live at home involuntarily. 29 percent of all young adults in Stockholm worry about not being able to find a place to live in the future, and 60 percent have had to rely on friends or family for help.
– There is a broken housing market in Stockholm, there are many who need support from their family to be able to afford to live away from home, says Ola Palmgren, vice president of Hyresgästföreningen, to the tax-funded SVT.
For the first time, more women than men are still living with their parents. Among young single women nationwide, 36 percent say they still live at home, compared with 32 percent of men.
Legislative amendment justified
The Swedish Tenants’ Association believes that the housing market needs to become more efficient and that the Housing Act needs to be changed. Today, municipal housing agencies have to offer vacant apartments according to the number of days in the queue, which they say puts young people at a disadvantage. Instead, it would be better to allocate housing according to need.
They also want to increase the housing allowance so that individual households can afford better housing. The Tenants’ Association also believes that more housing should be built at reasonable prices.
“The government cannot wait any longer, strong investments are needed now. Construction must be supported by cheap construction loans and a temporary investment subsidy, otherwise the housing shortage will worsen”, the association writes.
The report is based on 4,896 responses using a mix of methods to represent the entire target group. The total number of The total number of respondents is 23 percent in Stockholm County, 21 percent in Greater Gothenburg, 21 percent in Malmö and Lund Municipalities, 11 percent in Jönköping Municipality, 10 percent in Växjö Municipality and the remaining 13 percent from the rest of Sweden.
