This week, SFS participated in StudBO22, a conference and meeting place for the student housing industry. This year, StudBO was organized by Student housing companies and SGS studentbostäder in Gothenburg. The participants were mostly representatives from the country's student housing companies, many of whom we recognized from the interviews for our housing report. But students were also represented on site.
The theme for this year's conference was sustainability. In the UN's global goals, sustainability is defined with the familiar words:
"Sustainable development is development that satisfies today's needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs."
Sustainability takes on special relevance in relation to housing construction. According to the UN, 39% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions come from the construction sector. At the same time, we know that students' housing shortage is widespread and that we need to build more housing. The key question then becomes how do we build more and at the same time reduce our climate impact?
During the conference, we got to dive deep into the issue by listening to, among other things, the housing companies' own sustainability work and a research project on new variants of collective student accommodation. A personal favorite was architect Gert Wingårdh's presentation on wood as an economic, strong and sustainable building material.
In the breaks between speakers, the conversations continued. Here, the socioeconomic situation was a recurring topic. Students get less and less financial margins as a result of inflation - the need for reasonable rent levels in student housing is, if possible, even more important now. At the same time, building prices are increasing and housing construction is slowing down. We were told several examples of how the previous government investment support helped to keep rents down.
During Friday, we got to go on a study visit and look at several newly built student housing. It's funny that it was built new and that old buildings (for example a forge!) could be converted into student housing. During one of the visits, we also had time to talk a little with the students themselves.
However, it is clear that the rents are way too high in most of the newly built student housing. A student apartment we visited was a one-room apartment of 25 square meters, for which a student has to pay SEK 5 a month. Students should not have to spend close to half of the study funds on rent.
We must meet today's needs without jeopardizing tomorrow. Students have a great need for housing. At the same time, students have a decisive importance for climate change. Student housing and sustainability are connected in several ways. These challenges require political action.