Migration and perceptions of housing availability in Sweden

This paper investigates the relationship between different forms of migration, perceptions of housing availability and production of new housing stock in Sweden. This is done using survey data on housing availability on the municipal level, dating from 2005 to 2015. Primary findings show that on the national scale, as well as in rural areas and smaller urban areas, internal migrants have stronger impacts on housing availability than foreign-born migrants. However, when breaking down foreign-born migrants into smaller groups, it is found that refugees have strong impacts on housing availability, too. Furthermore, evidence of overall and refugee migration having an indirect influence on the production of new housing stock is also found.