Despite the housing shortage - newly built apartments are empty

The rent for a newly produced student apartment in the house The lecturer is at SEK 6,200 a month for 27 square meters. A rent that SFS, Sweden's unified student union thinks is too high. This means that a rent cannot be more than 35 percent of the study funding, ie SEK 3,800 a month.

Oscar Starck lived in the house last term, but he is glad that he has now been able to move to a cheaper apartment. It didn't work to have a rent of just over SEK 6,200 a month when living on a study grant of just over SEK 10,600 a month, he says.

- You often see moving cars here. Students move in and out. There are periods at the start of the semester that it is very much rented out because students are in urgent need of housing, says Oscar Starck.

Statistics on how many apartments have been rented in the first year show that it was only two months that all the apartments were rented out. It was during October and November last year. Then the number of vacant apartments increased month by month. In May, there were 47 vacant apartments and in July 90 apartments were vacant.

Rene Jaramillo (M), chairman of Växjö Housing, the municipal housing company that rents out student housing, sees that it is a problem that apartments are empty, but he does not see a reduction in rents as a solution.

- There is an economic calculation and if we were to reduce rents we would make a loss. We also do this when apartments are empty. Therefore, we work actively to find tenants who need a student apartment.

How big a problem are you losing when empty apartments are empty?

- Of course, this is a problem, because our calculations are based on 100 percent tenants. But we must not forget that the house is only one year. Sometimes you have to have ice in your stomach, says Rene Jaramillo (M).

"On the take too high"

Julia Nilsson and Frida Samuelsson started studying at Linnaeus University this term and just moved into the student accommodation Teacher.

- It is very fresh as it is newly built but the rent is too high. Nothing is included in the rent either, but you have to pay water, electricity and the internet in addition to SEK 6200. Which makes it even more expensive for us students, says Frida Samuelsson.