The real estate activities sector invested the most in the first quarter of 2019, investing SEK 35.4 billion in total. New construction, extensions and rebuilding of existing buildings accounted for SEK 16.9 billion of the investments, and housing accounted for SEK 13.6 billion. The industrial sector invested SEK 18.4 billion, of which machinery and equipment accounted for SEK 15.3 billion. Electricity, gas and heating plants, water and wastewater plants and waste facilities accounted for 13 percent of investments, SEK 11.9 billion in total in the second quarter.

Machinery and equipment is the largest asset class

In the second quarter, enterprises invested most in the machinery and equipment class of assets. These investments accounted for SEK 46.2 billion of total investments in the quarter, which corresponds to 50 percent. Construction, extensions and rebuilding of existing buildings accounted for 29 percent and housing accounted for 15 percent. Purchases of buildings and plants accounted for SEK 5.6 billion of the investments in the second quarter, which corresponds to 6 percent.

Investment survey gets new design in 2019

The investment survey was revised in various ways between 2018 and 2019. The questionnaire was redesigned to better align with accounting principles in enterprises; references to BAS accounts were added and the investment concept was adapted. Following this change, ‘investments’ refers to the acquisition of tangible assets with an economic life of at least three years, compared to the former definition, which included investments in assets with an economic life of at least one year. Expenditure on repair and maintenance and new leasing contracts have been removed from the questionnaire; forecasts are now only requested on a yearly basis, rather than per quarter. In future, results from the investment survey will be published four times a year, rather than three times a year. These changes may lead to some breaks in the time series.