It is the magazine Hem & Hyra that tells about the dramatic turnaround. Until last year, Gothenburg was the last of the three major cities in terms of construction rate. In 2017, only 358 rental apartments were built, in 2018 it had been raised to 966 and last year that number more than doubled to 2055 new rental apartments.

A total of 4,158 homes (rental apartments, condominiums and single-family homes) were built in Gothenburg in 2019. If you also include renovations, attic apartments and the like, you can add another 150.

Calculated per thousand inhabitants, Malmö built even more last year, but Gothenburg is now in an honorable second place and Stockholm last, the newspaper writes.

According to Hampus Magnusson, moderate municipal councilor in Gothenburg with responsibility for urban development, the change is partly due to the municipality changing its way of working, so that infrastructure and housing construction go more in step. It is also a matter of putting more pressure on the builders and demanding that those who have been granted land permits also start production.

But despite the intensive construction, it is not enough to make the housing shortage disappear. To cope with it by the year 2030, 4,000 - 5,000 new homes are required - per year. This according to the Real Estate Office's calculation.

In addition, it is primarily cheap rental apartments that are in great shortage, and newly produced apartments tend to be twice as expensive as the existing ones.

- Not everyone can afford newly produced. But when someone moves in there, there can be a gap in the existing stock and then moving chains arise, says Hampus Magnusson to Hem & Hyra.

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