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Dreaming of efficient markets? Residential construction, competition & affordability in the Swedish housing sector
Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6421-9381
Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
2025 (English)In: Housing Studies, ISSN 0267-3037, E-ISSN 1466-1810, Vol. 40, no 1, p. 46-69Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper problematises the perception that enhanced competition within the Swedish residential construction sector offers a panacea to rising building costs and deteriorating housing affordability. The paper investigates the relationships between housing production, exchange, and consumption from three perspectives: (i) an historical analysis of the residential construction industry; (ii) elite semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and (iii) an exploration of state crisis management. Instead of viewing competition within the construction sector as an isolated sphere, we argue that the inherent unevenness within this sector needs to be grasped in combination with broader political-economic developments. We claim that rising productions costs (particularly in the tenant-owner sector) have been fuelled by soaring land prices, and that this situation has provided fertile terrain for rent-seeking throughout the housing supply chain. We conclude that calls for more competition, both in Sweden and further afield, tend to oversimplify the complex issue of housing provision and shroud more fundamental housing system imbalances.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2025. Vol. 40, no 1, p. 46-69
Keywords [en]
Housing, residential construction, competition, political economy, land, Sweden
National Category
Human Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-108689DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2023.2256257ISI: 001068376500001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85171594795OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-108689DiVA, id: diva2:1802079
Funder
Swedish Research Council Formas, 2018-01613 2018-00049Available from: 2023-10-03 Created: 2023-10-03 Last updated: 2025-01-23Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
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  • Other style
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Output format
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