In Sweden, Statistics Sweden have defined such areas with a high concentration of recreational dwellings as areas consisting of at least 50 weekend and holiday homes situated at a distance not exceeding 150 metres from each other. In Sweden there were 1319 such concentrations in 2005, holding 27 per cent of the total number of weekend and holiday homes outside of the urban areas. Most of the concentrations are small – more than a thousand are smaller than 50 hectares.
There are however significant regional differences. In Stockholm County there are more than 300 concentrations, and 55 per cent of all recreational dwellings in the County are located within these concentrations. Other areas with a high number of such concentrations are to be found on the east and south coasts of Skåne, in Halland and in places along the Bohus coast. In the southern interior, in the middle part of Värmland and in Norrland such concentrations are however almost non-existent.
In the county of Kronoberg there are only four such concentrations, holding a mere 3 per cent of all the recreational dwellings in Kronoberg county. Second homes in splendid isolation appear to be particularly attractive to foreign visitors from North-Western Europe. In Sweden, Danish and German second-home owners have proved to have a particularly keen eye for recreational locations in the Southern Swedish interior.
In Kronoberg, a recent survey of the foreign second-home owners showed that Danish home-owners visited Sweden much more frequently than the Germans, although the Germans stayed in Sweden for longer periods. German second-home owners in Kronoberg spent, on average, almost half the year at their vacation home, while Danish home-owners spent slightly more than 100 days per year in residence.
In Norway, the concentration of weekend and holiday homes displays the same locational pattern as in Sweden, when the same definition of concentration areas is applied. Holiday homes in Norway are, similarly, concentrated in coastal areas and in areas close to the major regional centres. 290 municipalities (out of 434) have no such concentrations at all. In the greater Oslo region almost 2 out of 5 recreational dwellings are located in these concentrated areas, while in the rest of Norway only 1 out of 20 weekend or holiday homes are clustered in this way.
A 2007 comparative study of the development of recreational homes in the urban hinterlands of the greater Oslo, Trondheim and Tromsø areas (within 200 kilometres of the urban centres) 1980-2004 illustrated that this systematic regional difference has been maintained over time and continues up to the present day. New recreational dwelling units are erected in concentration areas in the municipalities serving the Oslo hinterland, while new holiday homes are mainly developed outside of (the few) concentration areas in the greater Trondheim and Tromsø regions.
This study however applies an alternative definition of concentration areas for weekend and holiday homes, applying the following requirements:
• The distance between two recreational dwellings should be, at most, 200 metres
• The concentration area should host at least 20 dwellings
Using this definition, 44 per cent of all the holiday homes in Norway are currently located in concentration areas. In addition an increasing proportion of new recreational dwellings are being established in concentration areas which are now becoming increasingly clustered.
By Jon M. Steineke