The requirement to build rental apartments: Must be open to beneficiaries

It is difficult to get a rental apartment in Malmö today if you do not have a job or study.

Few property owners accept financial assistance as income, something that now the Social Democrats together with the Liberals in Malmö want to change.

- It will be an opportunity to build Malmö completely, says Andreas Schönström (S), chairman of the technical committee in Malmö and municipal councilor.

Already today, ten percent of the newly built apartments will be leased to the municipality, which can secondarily rent them out to the homeless.

But that is not enough, says Andreas Schönström.

The municipal housing company MKB has had to take on a heavy responsibility.

Andreas Schönström.

Photo: Helena Bohm Nilsson / SVT

It's about integration

Now they want another 10 percent to be spent in the housing queue, Boplats Syd, for Malmö residents who have financial assistance.

- We enable people with financial assistance to be able to live anywhere in the city.

We should not have a large concentration in a few areas with people who have income support - it is about integration, says Andreas Schönström.

The idea is that the 10 percent that is to be laid out in the housing queue can be either in the newly built house or apartments in older houses if you already have it.

Queue location applies as for everyone else.

Concerns that property owners will back down

The policy, which has been hammered out in the municipal board and which will come up in the municipal council on Thursday, worries Fastighetsägarna Syd, which sees a challenge when it comes to small property owners who they believe are already taking a great financial risk.

- There will be an additional risk of accepting maintenance support as income.

If something goes wrong, then there is the help to get for a small property owner that you have when it is the municipality that has the first-hand contract, says Susanne Rikardsson, CEO of Fastighetsägarna Syd.

Susanne Rikardsson.

Photo: Press photo

And the Moderates in Malmö are afraid that the property owners will disappoint Malmö.

- The risk is that the property owners do not accept the terms and to a greater extent choose to build elsewhere or build condominiums, says Torbjörn Tegnhammar (M), opposition councilor.

Torbjörn Tegnhammar.

Photo: Helena Bohm Nilsson / SVT

"Think it's reasonable"

But the real estate company Tornet, which has 500 tenancies in Malmö, wants to build more in Malmö in particular and is not worried about the new policy.

- I think it is reasonable for the municipality to make these demands on us, but the entire housing market must help with the integration issue, says Göran Wendel, CEO of Tornet.

Göran Wendel.

Photo: Press photo

He believes that it can be important to get a home first to get a job, otherwise you risk ending up in a part 22.

- Many do not get an opportunity to get an apartment because there are a lot of demands and they always end up outside even though they are actually very good tenants, he says.