2022.05.23
Reduced construction pace in the first quarter of 2022
New apartment construction starts in the 1st quarter, 2002-2022
Source: Statistics Sweden
This week, Statistics Sweden presented the number of housing starts in Sweden during the first quarter. The report shows that new production of a total of approximately 14,100 new residential apartments began during the first quarter of 2022. This is 13 percent fewer compared to the same quarter of 2021, when 16,242 residential apartments began construction.
Minus 15 percent for housing in apartment buildings
The report states that "of the residential apartments started, 11,050 are in apartment buildings. This is 15 percent fewer than in 2021. Single-family home construction has decreased compared to last year, 3,050 residential apartments in single-family homes were started during the quarter, which is approximately five percent fewer than in the same period in 2021. In addition to new construction, started renovations also provided an addition of approximately 1,050 residential apartments, compared to an addition of 700 apartments in the first quarter of 2021.".
New construction in major cities is decreasing
The decline is most visible in all metropolitan areas, while the rest of the country is struggling. Västerbotten and Norrbotten, as well as Örebro, stand out the most – these regions are increasing the number of housing starts significantly.
Price increases slow down construction
Representatives of the construction industry point to a number of factors that could negatively affect new construction in the future; interest rate developments in the coming quarters, a looming concrete shortage and a shortage of other input goods and the price increase for these – see, for example, reinforcing steel with a plus 108 percent increase and wood products with a plus 46 percent in the diagram below:
Price trends for various construction materials April 2021–April 2022
Source: Statistics Sweden
The width of the bars corresponds to the weight share of the building material group in percentage of all building materials when calculating SCB's Factor Price Index for apartment buildings. The height of the bars corresponds to the average price trend for each product group.
Kent Oderud
