● THE SWEDISH PROPERTY MARKET NEWSEC PROPERTY OUTLOOK • AUTUMN 2021
THE SWEDISH PROPERTY MARKET
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ASTOUNDING VOLUMES SO FAR THIS YEAR – 2021 WILL SHATTER ALL PREVIOUS RECORDS
Though there have been some minor setbacks, 2021 has generally constituted a strong year of recovery for the Swedish economy. Economic growth throughout 2021 has been substantial, and is projected to end up at approximately 4.5 per cent for the year as a whole – one of the strongest growth rates among the economies that performed well in 2020. Unemployment has fallen and is approaching 7 per cent – high in a European context, but low when factoring in the very high employment rate that Sweden also boasts. After an initially sluggish vaccination process, vaccination rates picked up and Sweden now, together with the other Nordic countries, boasts one of the world's highest vaccination rates. Inflation continues to not quite
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reach the Swedish Riksbank’s goal of 2.0 per cent, but the Riksbank is expected to leave the key interest rate at 0 per cent for the foreseeable future despite this. All in all, the Swedish economy has fared well throughout the covid-19 crisis, and the country has generally been substantially less impacted than many major European economies as a result. While Swedish economic performance has been strong, the Swedish real estate market has performed astoundingly well throughout 2021. As of the end of September, the full-year transaction volume record of SEK 218 billion – set in 2019 – has already been broken. The transaction volume in 2021 is expected to exceed SEK
300 billion – an astonishingly strong performance, which is set to make Sweden the third largest real estate market in Europe, behind Germany and the United Kingdom but ahead of France. On the per capita level, the Swedish real estate market is by far the strongest in Europe, and on a global level is only outperformed by city states like Singapore and Hong Kong. Record volumes have been noted throughout every quarter thus far this year, driven both by large M&A transactions, as well as strong demand for virtually all property segments.
Contact: Adam Tyrcha, PhD adam.tyrcha@newsec.se
