The purpose of this study is to highlight the second home sector in Sweden and Denmark, in a comparative study of regulations for the second home market, and residence requirement. Two attractive second home island destinations is being compared in Ven, Landskrona and Gudhjem, Bornholm. The study addresses issues such as the local effects of a regulation of the second home market get at a local level, and the effects generated by deregulation, as well as local people's opinions about second home regulation in a popular second home area in southern Sweden.  This has been examined using a mix between qualitative method and quantitative methods, and the study is based on six semi-structured interviews from informants from Ven, Bornholm, and Gudhjem which has been analyzed throughout a thematic analysis. In addition to the interviews, diagrams from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Sweden and Statistics Denmark, and various real estate websites, and a field observation from Ven and Gudhjem will be presented. The result shows that show that the discussion on residence requirement has been going on for a long time in Sweden and Ven, but the local organizations found more disadvantages than advantages and are now looking in to other solutions, while other locals believes that there are more advantages with a residence requirement. In Denmark it’s revealed that there is recently started discussion between municipal decision-makers and local organizations about the regulations, and if it should be abolished or not. It turns out that the directions of the local effects being positive or negative depends a lot on the resort's contemporary expertise in local organizations, the population basis and to what extent the resort attracts people to stay there permanently for a living. The results also implies that some regulations in Denmark will not be deregulated, while it is still an active political discussion in Denmark.

The purpose of this study is to investigate policies regarding second home planning in the Swedish municipalities. To do so content analysis was conducted on the regulation document called översiktsplan (translated into English layout plan, land-use plan or sketch plan) of all 290 Swedish municipalities. The ´översiktsplan´ is a document containing directions, policies, guidelines and recommendations for land use in the municipality. Swedish law dictates that all municipalities must have such a document.   This study addresses the phenomenon second homes and second home tourism in the perspective of the destination, in this study represented by the Swedish municipalities regulation document called översiktsplan. Previous research has been taken into account, both concerning Sweden, the Nordic countries and countries in different parts of the world, to describe the phenomenon. The study aims to describe municipality´s characteristics and to analyse the geographical placement of the municipality. This is done by plotting a map over Sweden with the municipalities classified depending on their degree of policies regarding second homes. Then, a comparison with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions classification of Swedish municipalities 2017 was made to analyse the characteristics of municipalities having policies for second homes.   Of the 290 (100 %) Swedish municipalities there are 217 (74,8 %) that have made policies and preparations regarding second homes and these directions are shown in the översiktsplan. The result shows a clear pattern within the Swedish municipalities regarding directions, policies, guidelines and recommendations concerning second homes. Municipalities containing a minor urban area that accommodate less than 40 000 inhabitants and geographically placed nearby an urban area containing more than 40 000 inhabitants, nearby a ski resort or by the shoreline do have a higher preparation and planning regarding second homes.