Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday

How much have housing association fees gone up since 2022?

Roughly six in ten housing associations raised their monthly fee for members in 2023 and 2024, according to new statistics from mortgage bank SBAB and property site Booli, with an average increase of 20 percent.

Rising interest rates and high inflation caused the majority of the country's housing associations to hike fees between 2022 and 2024, with larger increases between 2023 and 2024 than between 2022 and 2023.

According to the bank, many housing associations did not account sufficiently for rising interest rates and rising running costs. It could also be the case, the bank said, that some associations chose to hike fees gradually rather than all at once to make the transition easier for members.

The average fee hike was 6 percent in 2023, rising to 8.1 percent in 2024. Fees rose the most in Stockholm and Gothenburg, with a rise of almost 10 percent in Stockholm in 2024.

Swedish vocabulary: bostadsrättsförening (brf) ‒ housing association

Swedish banks criticised for not cutting interest rates

Sweden's politicians have criticised the country's major banks for not cutting mortgage rates in line with the Riksbank central bank's cuts to the key interest rate.

The Riksbank lowered the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points last week. At first, Sweden's major banks did not lower their mortgage rates at all, with a handful later announcing cuts of 0.2 percentage points.

"Together, they'll save 1.5 billion kronor in one year by not cutting the rate all the way," savings economist Christina Sahlberg from comparison site Compricer told the TT newswire.

Finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson told finance market magazine Affärsvärlden that the bank's decision not to lower rates fully 'sticker i ögonen,' a Swedish phrase meaning something annoying or unacceptable, while Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson described the situation as för jävligt, roughly meaning 'rotten' or 'pretty awful'.

Both Andersson and Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar called for the government to use the state-owned mortgage bank SBAB to lower rates.

"I think it's absurd that we have a finance minister who pretends to have opinions on this, while she's also not using the state-owned bank," Dadgostar said.

Swedish vocabulary: räntor ‒ interest rates

Residents of Swedish suburbs praise new gang law

The local centres of many Swedish suburbs have seen the effects of gang crime in recent years, with drug sales taking place out in the open in many areas.

Now, locals are praising a new law banishing those suspected of gang crime from certain areas, which have essentially gotten rid of the problem.

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"If you'd asked me a few years ago I would have said it was chaos," a shop owner in Stockholm suburb Rågsved told the TT newswire. "But now it's much better."

According to police, the positive effects of the law can be seen in areas up and down the country.

"Of course, drug sales haven't stopped in Rågsved," said Andreas Lundberg, operative coordinator with the Farsta local police. "But it's not happening in an area everyone has to go through on their way to school or the metro."

In total, 120 people have been issued with a so-called 'preventative ban on visiting' certain areas since the law came into force in February last year. Of those, 117 are still under an active ban. The bans regard areas all over Sweden, but primarily in central and southern parts of the country.

Swedish vocabulary: preventativ vistelseförbud ‒ preventative ban on visiting a certain area

Swedish PM says Russia likely behind airport drones

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Monday that Russia was likely behind mysterious drone flights over several Scandinavian airports ahead of an EU summit in Copenhagen.