From Housing Shortage to Vacancies – Lessons from Skellefteå’s Housing Journey

From an acute housing shortage to rising vacancy rates in just a few years. At Skebo’s industry seminar, representatives from the housing sector gathered to discuss the lessons that can be learned when a market changes faster than planning and construction processes.

Agneta Hansson, chair of Skellefteå Industrihus, and Harriet Klasson, chair of Skebo, opened the seminar and welcomed everyone. Elin Olsson, architect and unit manager at the Västerbotten County Administrative Board, described how the housing issue has evolved from an urgent challenge in Skellefteå to an issue affecting the entire county. Through the Bostäder i Västerbotten (BoVä) initiative, municipalities, government agencies, and the business community have come together to share experiences and find common solutions to the housing supply issue. A key message was that the housing market cannot be managed by individual actors alone, but requires collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Susanna Olofsson, CEO of Norrlandsfonden’s housing finance division, then took the floor. She described how reindustrialization in northern Sweden is creating significant opportunities for municipalities far outside metropolitan areas, but also how this development places new demands on financing and long-term planning. Norrlandsfonden’s mission is to facilitate housing construction in municipalities where the need is great but where market conditions are not always sufficient to support the investments on their own.

Olofsson also highlighted that today’s housing surplus could become a future competitive advantage. Just like access to energy, land, and skilled labor, housing can be a decisive factor when companies want to establish themselves.

Helena Markgren, CEO of Skebo, provided a retrospective look at Skellefteå’s and Skebo’s housing journey over the past few years. Using statistics, she demonstrated how the municipality went from a record-high housing shortage to a market with rising vacancies in just a few years. During the years of growth, the housing waiting list grew significantly, while Skebo accounted for a significant portion of Sweden’s public housing sector’s planned construction starts. Following Northvolt’s bankruptcy, conditions changed rapidly; several projects were put on hold, and the housing market entered a new phase.

At the same time, Helena Markgren emphasized that interest in Skellefteå remains high. The housing waiting list continues to grow, and there is still significant interest in moving to the municipality. Her message was that community development takes place over the long term and that it is therefore important to plan for both good times and bad. But the turnaround is coming; it’s just a matter of when.

The seminar concluded with a panel discussion featuring representatives from Skellefteå Municipality, the Swedish Construction Federation, and the Swedish Property Federation.