● THE SWEDISH PROPERTY MARKET NEWSEC PROPERTY OUTLOOK • SPRING 2022
THE SWEDISH PROPERTY MARKET
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2021 SHATTERED ALL RECORDS – CAN 2022 KEEP UP THE MOMENTUM?
2021 proved to be yet another interesting year for the Swedish economy. The year was mostly marked by recovery, though some resurgence of the covid-19 virus, in both the delta and omicron variants, resulted in periodic sharpening of restrictions, impacting recovery to some degree. Economic growth, however, remained strong throughout the year, and ended up at 4.7 per cent for the year as a whole – one of the strongest growth rates among the economies that performed well in 2020. Unemployment fell to 7.5 per cent in 2021 – high in a European context, but low when factoring in the very high employment rate that Sweden also boasts. Inflation picked up towards the end of the year, and ended up at slightly above 2% in 2021
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– relatively low in a global context. The Swedish Riksbank is expected to leave the key interest rate at 0 per cent for the foreseeable future. The Riksbank has stated that the rate is set to remain unchanged until 2024, though an increase in 2023 would not be entirely surprising according to some industry forecasters. All in all, the Swedish economy continues to perform very well, and the country has navigated the covid-19 crisis well, economically speaking. Few things are stronger than the Swedish economy, but one is the Swedish real estate market – which has performed incredibly well in 2021 and thus far in 2022. The full-year transaction volume in 2021 ended up
at an enormous SEK 400 billion – almost double the previous transaction volume record, which was SEK 218 billion, set in 2019. This means that Sweden was the third strongest transaction market in Europe in 2021 – stronger than France, and not too far behind Germany and the United Kingdom. Though 2022 will have a tough time matching up to the record volumes seen in 2021, the year has come off to a strong start and is expected to post a very strong transaction volume, too – likely among the strongest of all time.
Contact: Adam Tyrcha, PhD adam.tyrcha@newsec.se
