I'm not all that familiar with Stockholm's housing market, but according to this recent article, it would appear that, like most big cities, there isn't enough affordable housing to go around. This is despite the fact that everyone in Sweden is technically entitled to it.
As of December 2021, there were 736,560 people (in Sweden) in the queue for a rent-controlled apartment, resulting in an average wait time of about 9.2 years. So basically what you want to do is put yourself on the list as soon as you turn 18. And then hope that at some point in the future you'll be granted an affordable apartment.
Given this dynamic, it makes sense there would be a long waitlist. If everyone is entitled to a rent-controlled apartment, you are effectively giving people two options: pay the market price or put yourself on this list, wait for a decade, and then pay less than the market price.
Why wouldn't you at least try to pay less?
The problem with this approach is that supply will almost certainly never keep pace with demand. It also appears to be fuelling a robust (and I guess illegal) secondary sublet market. Because if you have a below-market contract that is yours to keep forever and that lots of other people want, you have a valuable asset.
Getting housing right certainly isn't easy.
A super-entrepreneur, according to the common definition, is a rich person who has amassed a net worth of at least US$1 billion dollars by either starting a company or taking a small company and growing it into a big one. A super-entrepreneur is, by definition, not someone who inherited their wealth. Though I'm not sure what the cut off is. If you inherited $1 million and then started a massive company, does that still make you a super-entrepreneur? What about if you inherited $100 million?
In any event, here is a chart from New Geography showing super-entrepreneurs by region:
The USA is in the lead in this chart at about 3.1 super-entrepreneurs per one million inhabitants. But the highest rate in the world, at least according to this data set, actually belongs to Singapore at 4.7 per million. Europe, as a whole, doesn't look all that great here. But again, if you get more specific, some European countries are actually doing quite well. Sweden, for instance, is sitting at around 2 per million, which is higher than Canada's figure.
Why this data is potentially interesting is that it tells you a bit about these countries. It tells you whether they have strong property rights, whether it's easy to conduct business, and whether it's supportive of new ideas, among, of course, many other things. There also appears to be a clear link between the presence of super-entrepreneurs and unemployment. Turns out that the more people you have starting wildly successful businesses, the lower unemployment tends to be.
For the full New Geography article, click here. In addition to what I just wrote about, it talks about Europe's "entrepreneurial paradox" and issues of gender equality.
Feargus O'Sullivan is back with another Bloomberg CityLab article about "the iconic home designs that define our global cities." In this recent article he focuses on the Barnrikehus of Stockholm (and also talks about Sweden's housing market in general). Originally built in the 1930s, the slab-like midrise buildings were largely intended to address two pressing problems: 1) the need for affordable housing and 2) Sweden's incredibly low birthrate (supposedly the lowest in Europe at the time).
The Barnrikehus template was deployed on the edges of Stockholm and other Swedish cities. The designs were/are fairly simple. Very little ornament (this is Scandinavia). Four or five storeys usually. And no more than about 12 meters deep. This allowed for better natural ventilation, which was important for stymying the spread of tuberculosis. The rents were also heavily subsidized and declined even further with every child in the family. In other words: the more kids you had, the less rent you had to pay.
The suites were fairly compact, with many around the 430 square foot mark. This kind of space might have housed a family of six according to O'Sullivan. But compared to the other available housing options at the time, this was a significant improvement. Perhaps not surprisingly, these "child-rich houses" (which is how the name translates) developed the same kind of social housing stigma that was prevalent in many other countries and cities around the world.
But that perception changed over time and, today, these rent-controlled apartments are apparently highly sought after. (Here's a listing to give you a taste of what they're like.) Originally on the fringe of cities like Stockholm, they are now very well located and offer a high standard of living. (You also can't go wrong with white walls and pale woods.) To learn more about the evolution of Stockholm's depression-era housing, click here.
Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash