Students Compete to Live in a Tiny Cottage in Sweden
At a few hundred dollars per month, renting this tiny cottage does not buy you a great deal of space – but what you do get is cozy, dynamic and well-designed, inside and out by AF Bostader in Sweden.
The goal was to create stand-alone student housing for those who wished to live outside of shared-building arrangements, but at well under regional market prices – and the result has been steady competition by students to live there. To be considered, you must have “social talents” and be willing to blog regularly about your experience.
The company is now petitioning authorities to expand and meet demand, creating more of these autonomous structures for student living – the question on the mind of the city planners, however, is whether this is a sustainable strategy for dense educational dwelling needs.
Still, there is something to be said for the fact that despite economies of scale, these stand-alone tiny houses work out to be cheaper to build and rent than the more-compact solutions of multi-unit buildings.
More from The Local in Sweden
The detached apartment, or cottage, has been constructed by Lund’s building foundation, AF Bostäder (AFB), with student affordability as a priority.
“Students often just use their apartments to sleep in,” AFB’s CEO Rolf Svensson told The Local.
“They study in study dorms, have a social life outside of their homes, often can’t afford typical student housing… this is the perfect solution.”
The price of the bijoux dwellings are their main selling point, with the prospected cottages being rented for 2500 kronor ($370) a month, compared to the average newly built student apartment in Lund which is rented for 4167, yet three times the size.
“We have a catch-22 situation. There is a shortage of student housing and the housing board’s regulations result in high building costs, and therefore expensive apartments,” said Svensson in a statement.
“We want to get out of this by trying compact housing on a scientifically sound basis.”
