Most new dwellings per inhabitant in Uppsala County

In 16 out of 21 counties in Sweden, more dwellings were completed in 2018 than in the previous year. Just over half (54 percent) of the completed dwellings are located outside the three metropolitan areas. This is the first time since 1997 that more completed dwellings were added outside metropolitan areas than within.

In Uppsala County, there were 9.7 dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants, which is the largest number of completed dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants. In second place is Kronoberg County, with 9.0 dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants. Västernorrland County had the fewest number of completed dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants, at

1.2 completed dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants. The corresponding figure for the entire country was 5.4 completed dwellings per 1 000 inhabitants.

Most new rented dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings

In 2017, most of the completed new construction of multi-dwelling buildings was tenant-owned. However, in 2018, once again there were more rented dwellings; 52 percent were rented dwellings and 48 percent were tenant-owned. However, the type of tenure varies in different regions. In Stockholm, tenant-owned dwellings remain more common; as many as seven out of ten new dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings are tenant-owned. In Greater Malmö and outside the metropolitan areas, the proportions are reversed and approximately six out of ten of newly constructed dwellings were rented.

In one- or two-dwelling buildings, tenant-owned dwellings continue to become more common. From completion of only a few hundred dwellings yearly over a longer period, there has been an increase in recent years. In 2018, just over 3 000 newly constructed dwellings in one- or two-dwelling buildings were tenant-owned, which is more than one fourth of the one- or two-dwelling buildings that were completed.

Small dwellings are increasing more

The most common size of dwelling in multi-dwelling buildings that were completed was a dwelling with two rooms and kitchen; there were over 16 000 dwellings of this size, which is more than one out of three dwellings.

Small dwellings increase relatively more than larger ones, 24 percent or over 5 000 more dwellings that have two rooms or less were added during the year compared to 14 percent or over 2000 dwellings that have three rooms or more.

The average useful floor space for dwelling is 59 square metres in new construction of multi-dwelling buildings and 143 square metres in one- or two dwelling buildings.

Special housing

Among the new dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings, 4 557 were classified as special housing. Among those, 2 388 dwellings were designated for students and 1 420 dwellings for elderly or disabled persons.

Conversion of multi-dwelling buildings

In addition to the dwellings completed through new construction in 2018, 3 495 dwellings were completed through conversion of existing multi-dwelling buildings, which is four percent more than in 2017. About 80 percent of those dwellings came from non-residential buildings that have been converted into dwellings and about 12 percent from attics converted into dwellings.

Demolition of dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings

In 2018, demolition of 540 dwellings in multi-dwelling buildings was started. This is 100 dwellings more compared with 2017, but still among the lowest numbers of demolished dwellings since the survey was first carried out in 1949. The majority of these dwellings, 80 percent, were demolished to make place for construction of new residential buildings. Only three percent of the dwellings were demolished due to rental difficulties.