Sustainability Issue #2 July 2009

Having more than one home is no new phenomenon. Long distance commuting necessitates flats for overnight stays, not least in the metropolitan regions, and second homes also have a history that goes back to the end of the 19th century. Towards the end of the past century, however, large changes in society have given rise to renewed interest in second homes in the countryside. The decline in population in most rural municipalities has created a large supply of properties that can be used as second homes. The increasing number of retired people in Sweden can make good use of these second homes, especially as their health and economy in most cases make this possible. The change to a service society also means that that households of working age have a greater chance of taking their work with them to their second home, or to arrange their time so that the second home can be used more often. Technical innovations such as the Internet and mobile phones have also allowed contact to be maintained with workmates, friends and the family. But European integration and, especially, Sweden's membership of the European Union have also made it easier for foreign citizens to buy second homes in Sweden, and naturally also for Swedish people to buy second homes in Spain or Thailand.

More permanent than the permanent home

The Norwegian geographer Björn Kaltenborn also claims that globalisation and the internationalisation of the economy are important factors in explaining the renewed interest in second homes in the countryside. He thinks that second homes are important counterweights to the rapidly changing working life in the cities. Living in the second home makes it possible to have peace and quiet and to do creative work that is not characterised by work sharing and stress. He also claims that globalisation has in some cases increased the interest in the local and space-specific. Especially in cases when second homes act as links to childhood environments or family roots, their role may be much greater. In many cases, second homes have been inherited from the parent generation, and they act as meeting places for the family. Many owners of a second home also say that they want their children to take it over after they are gone. Kaltenborn therefore wonders whether the second home is in actual fact our permanent home, since, in contrast to the so called "permanent" homes, they are seldom changed during one's life.

310,000 second homes are located outside the municipality where their owners are census registered. Municipalities near the metropolitan areas, in particular, have a large influx of holiday home owners, but also many mountain municipalities have considerable numbers of second home owners who at times account for up to 20 per cent of the permanent population.

Competition for the landscape?

Second homes are not uniformly distributed over the country as a whole, and the effects of second home residence on the local communities also differ between the regions. Second homes are mainly concentrated in the attractive hinterland of the metropolitan regions. The archipelagoes outside Stockholm and at the west coast are good examples of this. Here, the second home residents compete with the permanent residents for attractive locations.

In the research project "Competition for attractive landscapes", we have shown that this, at least in the Stockholm archipelago, has not resulted in displacement of the permanent population. Second home ownership has instead also decreased on the most remote islands. We therefore believe that the owners of second homes rather make use of houses that are not wanted by the permanent population. A landscape without second homes would not therefore be populated by more permanent residents but would instead have more empty houses all round the year.

The demands of the Rural Development Agency regarding restrictions on house ownership therefore seem of scant interest. People leave the countryside for training or education, to move in with a partner or to get a better job. Restrictions on ownership would not change this. It would however make it much more difficult for people to become established in the cities, since they could not, as at present, make money by selling their houses.

Or lack of interest!

This can be seen in less attractive rural areas outside coastal and mountain regions. In contrast to the archipelagean regions, second homes here are previous permanent homes which have been converted into second homes because there is too little demand for permanent housing. Large parts of the inland of Norrland are in this category. Here, many second homes are hardly used at all, and their economic value is almost non-existent. This also adversely affects permanent residents who want to move from here. Sometimes they find it impossible to sell their houses, and in contrast to households in attractive metropolitan hinterlands, there is no millionaire who wants to speculate in second homes.

Service base

There is a special situation in holiday regions such as Sälen, Åre or Öland, where there are at times more second homes than permanent homes. Second homes here are often used not only by the owners themselves, but they are rented out and in this way make an important contribution to the overnight acommodation capacity of the holiday destination.

Even though the municipalities where second homes are situated incur expenditure since the owners regularly use the municipal road network and other activities financed by the municipality, second home ownership also gives rise to a number of positive effects. Second home owners want the same goods as the local population, and in this way they help maintain the service facilities in rural areas. Examples from the Stockholm archipelago also show that the permanent population can earn a living by providing services for the holiday home owners. Investments in second homes alone account for about ten per cent of all tourist consumption in Sweden.

Voting rights for second home residents?

In the light of this it may seem remarkable that second homes do not  attract more attention in the current social debates. There is a lack of basic information on how second homes are used. Many municipalities are also unaware of how many second home residents they have, and what these think of living in the municipality. Second home owners are an "invisible" population.

The introduction of a municipal property tax would however mean that second home  residence is taken seriously. For instance, what opportunities are there for second home owners to participate in local planning? In Finland, where it has been realised that second homes are used to an increasing extent, especially by retired households, there is talk today of "second home democracy" which implies, inter alia, that consideration is being given to granting second home residents local voting rights.

What the situation is like in Sweden is not clear, but a new research project performed jointly by the Department of Social and Economic Geography in Umeå and the Department of Human Geography in Stockholm will chart the relationship of second home owners with their second homes and the surrounding countryside.

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