With starting point in current housing policy debates in Sweden, where the deregulated rental market in Finland is used as an example of a better functioning housing market, this thesis aims to investigate if this image is shared by the Finnish experts in rental housing related questions. Based on eight semi-structured interviews, the precarious living conditions on the Finnish rental housing market are revealed and discussed in relation to the theoretical framework of housing inequality. Finland’s market liberal approach to housing provision has created good conditions for investing in housing that is reflected on the supply of rental housing on the private sector. Rental apartments on this sector are small, referred to as ‘tube studios’ and ‘suicide studios’, unaffordable for many, and the legal framework provides little security for the tenants causing uncertainty about the future. Furthermore, a number of reforms are currently being carried out to decrease state support in providing affordable housing and access to social housing, referred to as ARA-housing, is to be limited for the worst-off population. In light of these results this thesis aims to provide an alternative image to the market dominated discourse and argues that behind the numbers of constructed units and vacancy rates, a wide range of precarious housing conditions exist. This precarity affects first and foremost residents on private sector and is expected to become a bigger issue and impact a greater number of people in the future when the political reforms currently under way are rolled out.

Avyttringen och ombildningen av kommunala och privata bostadshyresfastigheter till bostadsrättsföreningar har blivit ett allt vanligare fenomen under de senaste decennierna. Främst sker avyttringen i Stockholms kommun. Syftet med denna uppsats är att mäta om prissättningen vid utförsäljning av bostadshyresfastigheter inom Stockholms kommun skiljer sig beroende på om säljaren varit privat eller ett allmännyttigt kommunalt bolag. För att undersöka detta har olika regressionsmodeller applicerats på data över fastighetsprisregistret under två mandatperioder. Resultatet visar en tydlig prisskillnad mellan kommunala avyttringar och privata inom samma områdesindelning. Skillnaden i prissättning innebär att kommunala fastighetsbolag har realiserat ut och omfördelat skattebetalarnas pengar, till ett värde som kan uppgå till så mycket som 3,23 miljarder kronor räknat i 2010 års penningvärde. Sannolikt är en sådan förmögenhetsomfördelning inte samhällsekonomisk effektiv. Vidare torde den motverka syftet med hyreslagsstiftningen. / In the Swedish market for multi-family housing, investment properties are often sold to the tenants who thus convert the property into co-operative housing. This is particularly true in attractive housing location where the existing rent control is in practice binding for all residential rental units. It is somewhat less self-evident that multi-family properties owned by the municipality (not-for-profit, council housing) would also be subject to such conversions. This is, however, quite common, particularly in Stockholm. The aim of this paper is to estimate whether council housing is generally sold to the tenants with a discount, as compared to the market prices of transactions where private property companies sell their properties. We use regression techniques applied to data from the official record of real property transactions. We find a significant price difference between the two categories of transactions. Council housing is sold out at a discount price and we estimate that a total value of some 3.23 billion SEK may have been redistributed from the taxpayers to the housing purchasers in these transactions. This program is probably not efficient from a public economic perspective. Furthermore, it counteracts the purpose of the current rent control legislation.