SKB has been on the Stockholm housing market for over a hundred years and currently has 145 properties in Stockholm County. Earlier this year, the Exploding Board decided SKB's application for free purchases and, with the council's decision, SKB has acquired 42 of the 94 sites. The properties are built between 1939 - 2004 and are located in both the outer city and the inner city. The total transaction amounts to SEK 1.1 billion.

"SKB is an eternity manager, which means that we never sell the properties we build. Through the free purchase, we achieve a better balance between the rented and owned land. However, the land lease as a tool is always a prerequisite for our new production," says CEO Eva Nordström.

SKB, which is owned by its 90,000 members, is tasked with building, leasing and managing cooperative rental apartments for its members. Construction of another 350 apartments will commence in 2019.

"The purchase is initially a large investment, but it gives us a stronger control both on the ground that our houses are on, and on the cost development associated with them," says Joakim Wernersson, CFO.

Today, there are approximately one million condominium apartments and just over 1.4 million rental apartments in Sweden. In Stockholm, the distribution looks different with more tenant-owned apartments than rental apartments. The number of cooperative leaseholds that is an intermediary between traditional condominium and tenancy rights is still very limited in Sweden, but more common in other countries.

"Our conviction is that the cooperative tenancy has an important role to play in fulfilling sustainable urban development. The form of enrollment is socially sustainable based on several aspects where much is about the members' involvement. Economically, it is sustainable as the surplus is reinvested, which means that we can build in both the low and the boom," says Eva Nordström.