57% of Swedes still live where homes are scarce

Sweden’s housing shortage is becoming less national and more brutally specific: the wrong homes, at the wrong prices, in the places where people most need them.

Boverket’s 2026 survey found 130 municipalities reporting a balanced market, more than the 102 reporting a shortage. Yet 57 percent of Sweden’s population still lives in a shortage municipality, especially around metropolitan areas and university towns. A national count can improve while the queue facing a student, young worker or growing family barely moves.

Building is also a financial calculation. Boverket expects construction to start on about 28,800 homes in 2026, slightly below the estimated annual need of around 30,000 through 2035. High construction costs remain a major obstacle, while household purchasing power has not fully recovered from the recent inflation and interest-rate shock.

That creates a trap. Developers need rents or sale prices high enough to cover land, materials, labour and finance. Many households need the new homes to be cheaper than that equation allows. Municipal planning and land decisions determine where projects can happen, but permission alone cannot make an unaffordable project viable.

The result is not simply “too few homes.” Some municipalities report surpluses while high-demand regions lack accessible, affordable housing. Sweden can shorten planning, release land and improve finance, but every solution must answer the same question: who can actually pay for the home once it is built?

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