SFS Housing Report 2022 - the housing shortage for students is increasing again

You can find the housing report for 2023 here.

The housing shortage for students is increasing again, after temporary relief during the pandemic. Six study areas get worse results in this year's housing report compared to last year. At the same time, high rents continue to be a major problem and in several locations parts of the stock have been liquidated during the pandemic.

The Swedish National Union of Students, SFS, annually releases a housing report in which the housing situation for the country's students at 34 study locations is mapped. Each place gets a color marking depending on how quickly the students can be offered safe accommodation. 

If students can be offered safe accommodation at a study location within a month, the location receives a green marking. If a student can get accommodation within one semester, the locality gets a yellow mark, and if it takes more than a semester to get accommodation, the locality gets a red mark. 

- During the pandemic, the pressure on the housing market eased in many study locations, because more people studied remotely and thus did not move to their new study location. Now we know that the relief was only temporary. Almost all study areas have increased search pressure for student housing this year, says Linn Svärd, chairman of the Swedish National Union of Students.

The number of green-marked study locations doubled during the pandemic years. This year, however, the number of red-marked cities increased again for the first time since the housing report 2019. Six locations have received a worse marking than in last year's report. 

- A problem that exists in some locations is that student housing has been converted into other types of housing because the need was lower during the pandemic. Combined with the fact that many students have too high rents, we are worried about future developments, says Linn Svärd. 

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Changes between 2021 and 2022:

  • Deterioration: Borås, Jönköping and Eskilstuna have gone from green to yellow
  • Deterioration: Karlskrona, Malmö and Uppsala have gone from yellow to red
  • Improvement: Helsingborg and Linköping have gone from yellow to green

Percentage of students divided by color marking

  • 24% of all students live in a green-marked city
  • 15% live in a yellow-marked city 
  • 61% live in a red-marked city

Link to press photos of Linn Svärd