Jagvillhabostad.nu: Safe housing for the youth of today

With increasing rents and property prices, unreliable contracts and poor hosing stocks, how can the youth of today live safely in our cities? Johanna Clarin, Vice President of the non-profit organisation Jagvillhabostad.nu, shares perspectives on the housing crisis in Sweden and their organisation’s concept for building houses for young people.

A housing crisis affecting younger generations

There is an ongoing housing crisis in Sweden, and it hits young people especially hard. 238 000 people between the ages of 20 and 27 still live with their parents, despite wanting to find a home of their own. Among young people who have already moved to their first apartment, many struggle to find safe and stable housing, moving between short, expensive and unreliable contracts. The main issue they are facing can be referred to as the “double locks” on the Swedish housing market. A young person lacks both the financial resources to buy their first home, and the amount of queueing days needed to secure a lease. This leads to a generation gap, where a large number of young people are falling behind on starting their careers, families and entire adult lives.

Jagvillhabostad.nu is a non-profit organization working to secure a safe home for all young people in Sweden. We have developed a political platform with around 60 concrete proposals on how we want to drive political change to improve the situation for young people, both in the leasing market and the market for owned homes. Our proposals include improved efficiency in the building process to enable production of more affordable leased housing, reduced financial requirements for young people buying their first home, and incitement for actors on the housing market to focus on young people in the planning process.

Quick houses speeding up change

Many political ideas on the topic of housing today tend to have a longer time perspective. At Jagvillhabostad.nu, we understand and support long-term solutions, but we feel the need to complement them with ideas that can make a difference here and now. One such idea that we welcome is to offer start-loans for first time home buyers, which the government is now finally investigating. Another idea that we have developed is “Snabba Hus”, which translates to “Quick Houses”.

Snabba Hus is a concept focused on building houses for young people, with temporary building permits on land that is temporarily not used. The houses are completely modular and can be constructed quickly, and moved when or if the land needs to be used for another purpose. The buildings still offer high living standards and fulfill environmental requirements. They can even be constructed in wood material. This enables cities to quickly construct houses dedicated to young people, without going through extensive planning processes. The apartments in Snabba Hus are offered to people between the ages of 18 and 30, and contracts span over four years, during which the tenants keep their spot in the housing queue.

As of today, there are three apartment blocks with Snabba Hus on three different locations in Stockholm. However, we believe that if the housing crisis is to be solved, we need to take action and start implementing solutions broadly. Therefore, Jagvillhabostad.nu works actively to market the concept of Snabba Hus to more cities and municipalities. We hope that more representatives from the building industry, politicians and other people in power will start to listen to the perspectives of young people and support our effort in changing the outlook for young people on the housing market.

Help us solve the youth housing crisis – join Jagvillhabostad.nu

Are you tired of the housing crisis and how it is affecting young people in Sweden? Jagvillhabostad.nu is a member driven organization with members between the ages of 16 and 30. If you are interested in supporting our cause and help improve the situation for young people in the Swedish housing market, you can become a member of our organization. The membership is free of charge and it is up to you if you want to actively participate in activities or just support us in a passive membership. Read more here: jagvillhabostad.nu/bli-medlem