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Most municipalities in Sweden have a housing shortage. At the same time, it is difficult for more and more groups to enter the housing market. In recent years, the combination of a sharp rise in prices and various regulations, from mortgage caps to sky-high interest rates from banks, have become insurmountable obstacles for many.
This is what its member-owned Obos, the Norwegian equivalent of HSB, sees as a business opportunity.
Obos already has a large housing production in Sweden: they build around 1,500 houses a year. However, the plan is for up to 3,000 homes in five years, of which 600 will be offered as partially owned apartments.
It works so that the buyer pays at least 50 percent of the house and rents the rest of Obos.
Obos is the Norwegian equivalent of HSB. Some of the apartments they build in Sweden will be partially owned apartments.
Photo: Elin Åberg
The company has calculated the consequences for a Stockholm nurse with an average income of SEK 37,300 per month. The nurse has saved 300,000 for the 15 percent cash contribution.
By then, based on the banks’ discount rates and amortization requirements, Obos concludes that this intended buyer can only demand five percent of the available apartments in the Stockholm region.
If Obos’s rental purchase model were the norm for all newly produced apartments for sale, that share, the company believes, would rise to 33 percent.
Purchase of housing for rent it already happens in Sweden, but to a modest degree. Last year, for example, DN was able to report on the HSB pilot project in Gothenburg.
But for Obos, partially owned housing is nothing new. They have been in Norway for a long time.
– It is an integral part of our business model, as CEO Daniel Kjørberg Siraj says.
He does not hide behind a chair that in recent years conditions are increasingly difficult for most young people to buy a home that is open to investment in partially owned homes in Sweden.
Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Stockholm, where Obos plans to build.
Photo: Elin Åberg
Even if Obos builds across the country, it will focus on partially owned housing in metropolitan areas. The plan is to build 5,000 apartments in the metropolitan regions in the years 2021-2025.
DN photographer meets Sofia Ljungdahl at Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Stockholm. There, Obos will build 340 apartments where the first move will take place in 2024.
– And then we estimate that 20 percent will be sold with one of the home buying models, he says.
Sofia Ljungdahl, responsible for Obo’s metropolitan investment in Sweden.
Photo: Elin Åberg
Because Obos is Member owned, this means that anyone who wants to buy a home must also be a member to have priority. It also means that the waiting time will determine when a member can buy.
– Yes, the one who is further away should buy first, says Sofia Ljungdahl.
On the other hand, Obos opens for Swedes as members since last November, which gives the same start date for those who sign up then.
The idea is that the buyer he will eventually buy the rest of the house.
– After ten years, we can cancel our property, but it does not happen automatically, says Daniel Kjørberg Siraj.
One thing that has yet to be decided is how the Obos rental purchase model will be able to function within the framework of Swedish law when it comes to landlord-tenant associations.
– We are currently working on investigating how it should work with the legislation on tenant-owner associations, one opportunity for us is to do owner-occupied apartments, says Sofia Ljungdahl.
Obos is bigger on Swedish competitor JM, but there is nothing to worry Daniel Kjørberg Siraj.
– The housing market needs more players, not fewer, he says.
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