ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Housing card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 12 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaPlaces & infrastructure
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Places & infrastructure

Housing

Owning, renting & social housing

How you live, what it costs and how long you have to queue are decided in an interplay between the town hall and the Riksdag. The municipality decides what gets built through its planning monopoly and often owns the public housing company (allmännyttan), while central government writes the rent law and sets the taxes around housing.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · plans, land & public housing · approx 50 %
  • State · rent law, taxes & support · approx 40 %
  • EU · state aid rules & building rules · approx 10 %

The municipality weighs heaviest through its planning monopoly and public housing, but rents and taxes are set within central government's framework. The municipal election decides what gets built where you live.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityLand & public housing · centre of gravity
The regionOn the sidelines
Central governmentThe law & the taxes
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the building committee and the board of the municipal housing company.
No formal role in housing policy.
The Riksdag, the Government, the National Board of Housing (Boverket), the Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) and the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen).
What do they decide?
Housing supply, detailed development plans (detaljplaner), land allocations and the owner directives to the public housing company.
Regional planning and commuting patterns still affect where housing is needed.
The rent law and the use-value system, interest deductions, mortgage repayment rules, housing benefit and building regulations.
Where are decisions made?
In the council and the committees. The housing company's owner directives are decided by the council.
In regional development strategies and regional plans where they exist.
In the Riksdag and at the agencies. The County Administrative Board tracks the housing market in the county.
Who pays?
Municipal land and the companies' rental income. By law, public housing must be run on business terms.
No housing money goes through the region.
The central government budget: housing benefit and, at times, support for building.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Consultations (samråd) on plans, a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag), and join the housing queue early.
Regional election No direct route here. Housing issues are driven in the municipality and the Riksdag.
General election A referral response on housing policy proposals, contact with members of the Riksdag.
EUThe EU's state aid rules affect how public housing may be run, and construction products are regulated jointly. The European Parliament election plays in at the margin.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case How a rental flat comes to be
  1. State

    The Riksdag sets the rent rules

    The rent law and the use-value system govern how rents may be set and negotiated. That shapes the maths for anyone considering building rental flats.

    Point of influence

    The general election shapes housing policy: taxes, support and rent legislation.

  2. Municipality

    The municipality allocates the land

    In its housing supply guidelines, the municipality judges how many homes are needed and allocates land to developers, often with conditions. This is where it is decided whether they become rental flats or owner-occupied flats.

    Point of influence

    Land allocations and guidelines are decided politically. The municipal election and the consultations are your ways in.

  3. Municipality

    Detailed plan and building permit

    The block is planned through consultation and review, then the building committee grants the building permit. The public housing company's or a private landlord's building starts to go up. A detailed plan can be appealed to the Land and Environment Court by neighbours and other affected parties.

    Point of influence

    The detailed plan goes out for consultation, and affected parties can appeal.

  4. State

    The rent is negotiated within the law

    Before move-in, the rent is negotiated between the landlord and a tenants' organisation, under rules decided by the Riksdag. The use-value, not the queue for the flat, is what should set the level.

  5. Municipality

    The queue decides who moves in

    In some municipalities the flat is allocated through a municipal housing agency (bostadsförmedling), otherwise through the companies' own queues. Queue time is the most common key to the contract.

  6. Your everyday life

    The keys change hands

    A first-hand contract, a rent set through negotiation and a block that only existed on a map ten years ago. Every link was a decision that could be influenced.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Is housing a commodity or a right, and what follows from the answer?

  2. Who should get the attractive flats: whoever has queued longest, pays most, or needs them most?

  3. What should your municipality require when it allocates land: low rents, architecture, climate standards?

  4. How do the housing queue and prices affect who can live in your municipality?

  5. Would you change anything in how rents are set in Sweden, and if so, what?

Glossary

Allmännytta
Municipally owned housing companies that are meant to support housing supply and be run on business terms.
Bruksvärde
The rent-setting principle: a flat's standard and location, not demand, should set the rent.
Markanvisning
The municipality's decision to let a developer negotiate to build on municipal land.
Bostadsförsörjningsansvar
The municipality's legal duty to plan for housing for its residents.
Hyresförhandling
Negotiation between landlord and tenants' organisation that sets the rent.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.