Municipal land allocations: a key for understanding tenure and social mix patterns in Stockholm

A socially mixed population is a politically stated ambition in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. By providing a variety of tenure alternatives – i.e. rental and ownership housing – throughout all neighborhoods it is presumed this objective could be at least partially fulfilled. Since current tenure proportions display a weak balance in many neighborhoods it could consequently be assumed that governing politicians – by primarily utilizing Stockholm’s vast landownership and municipal housing developers – attempt to bridge observed gaps. Distribution of new rental- and ownership apartments in municipal land allocations should accordingly acknowledge the existing tenure composition in a neighborhood. Methodically this article focuses on all (nearly 50 000) apartments channeled through Stockholm’s land allocation system between the years of 2002 to 2012. After classification of all apartments based on tenure, location, year and developer (private or municipal) this information is merged with yearly housing stock characteristics for 128 neighborhoods. The outcome is a unique data set allowing for a statistical assessment of whether Stockholm’s tenure (and in extension social) mix ambition is reflected in practice, and moreover the role played by the municipality’s own housing developers. The present article there to aims to highlight the crucial importance of landownership in every Swedish municipality with an aspiration to achieve or maintain a balanced tenure mix. While the findings indicate Stockholm is complying fairly well with its stated ambition, the results do reveal some contradicting signs. Looking beyond the tenure mix focus it could moreover be questioned whether Stockholm fully utilizes its (landownership) capacity to stimulate a socially mixed population – especially one capturing more than solely socio-economical aspects.