SFS Housing Report 2021 - Better situation to get student housing for the second year in a row
Four university locations receive an improved marking in this year's housing report. Last year's reduced pressure on student housing seems to be holding up, even though more and more students are returning to campus teaching. A number of localities have accelerated the pace of construction, but there are many indications that the overall positive development is partly temporary.
The Swedish National Union of Students, SFS, annually releases its housing report in which the housing situation for students in 33 study locations is mapped. The cities get a color mark depending on how quickly the students can be offered safe housing.
This year, 6 locations are marked in red, 9 in yellow and 18 in green. Borås, Eskilstuna and Kristianstad have gone from yellow to green markings, while Uppsala has gone from red to yellow. No place has received a worse marking.
The number of green spaces has doubled in two years. Several of the new green resorts have reduced pressure on the housing market due to distance education, and the number of international students has decreased. But in several places, construction has also increased.
Yet only one-fifth of the students live in a green-marked city. Larger student cities such as Stockholm, Gothenburg and Lund have a particularly serious housing shortage.
- It is gratifying that several study places have managed to make progress, even though the housing shortage is still widespread. There are many indications that the corona effect will decrease by next year. The number of students is already at record high levels and more are about to return for campus teaching, says Oskar M Wiik, vice chairman of SFS.
At the same time, several student unions are warning that housing costs have skyrocketed, especially for newly produced homes. One third of the students have a rent of more than SEK 5000, which is almost half of the study grant.
- It is worrying that more and more student unions are sounding the alarm about rising housing costs. If the rent is not adapted to the students' finances, it does not matter how much we build. The housing allowance needs to be redesigned so that students can more easily take part in it, but we also need to reduce building costs through investment support and changed building regulations, says Linn Svärd, SFS chairman.
About the report
The report contains a description of the housing situation at each place of study. A place of study receives a green marking if it can offer students safe housing within a month, a yellow marking if it can offer safe housing during the autumn term, and a red marking if it cannot offer housing during the autumn term. At the back of the report is a summary of the results historically, as well as a summary of how the students are spread out in different places.
The Swedish National Union of Students, SFS, is an association of student unions at Swedish universities and colleges. SFS has about fifty member corps which together represent approximately 350 students and doctoral students.
Report release
On Monday, we arranged a report release where we went through the results of the housing report, and heard from some of the unions that have been involved. You can watch the conversation in the clip below.