The term 'exurbs' was coined in the US in the 1950s, to describe prosperous rural communities that, due to the development of high-speed highways, were becoming commuter towns for a greater urban area.
In the contemporary housing policy debate, the issue of second homes has been approached as a recreational version of urban sprawl. In the Nordic context, this remains largely unexplored as a research issue, although national surveys have found second homes to be well within commuting distance for a majority of households:
Finland
The 2003 second home survey found that the average travel distance to a recreational home was 107 kilometres. For half of the second home owners, the distance from the primary dwelling to the second home was less than 50 kilometres.
The issue of recreational urban sprawl is particularly relevant in the urban hinterlands, where second homes and recreational dwellings may be transformed into permanent residences. In Finland, this has led to a high conversion rate for second homes into regular, permanent, dwellings in the greater Helsinki area in particular. See table 1, p14.
Denmark
Counter-urbanization and the transformation of the open landscape are particularly interlinked phenomena. The Danish summer house areas close to the major urban centres are subject to increased pressures from urban sprawl. For many, it will prove quite a challenge to maintain their current zoning status as permanent residencies are on the increase.
Common denominators in respect of these areas include the fact that they are well-connected by public transport and are situated well within commuting distance to the main urban centres. Conversion is of course not a prospect shared by all Danish summer house areas – some areas are declining in attractiveness and undergoing something of a deterioration in the standard of their dwellings.
Sweden
Approximately 640,000 buildings are classified as recreational homes/second homes. In addition, some 40,000 buildings are assumed to be used as second homes without being classified as such. About ten per cent of these are occupied on a permanent basis (i.e. as the main dwelling of the household), but on the other hand a significantly higher number of buildings are classified as primary dwellings without being occupied at all.
More than 150,000 persons decided to settle permanently in their second home from 1991 to 2005. As of 2006, almost a quarter of a million persons (237,000) live permanently in what are classified as recreational dwellings.
Almost 22 percent of the buildings that were classified as second homes in 1991 are today classified as regular, permanent dwellings. Most of these transformations are – and have taken place - in the three major urban regions of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö.
In the greater urban areas it is mainly young households with small children that have chosen to settle permanently in recreational homes. In the Swedish peripheries, such conversions are driven by older households.
Stockholm
A recent study of second-home tourism in small island communities in the Stockholm archipelago published in Island Studies Journal early in 2007 notes that individuals migrating from these islands are improving on their situation. Young out-migrants are to some extent being replaced by older in-migrants, resulting in an ageing population.
The Stockholm archipelago provides, together with some west-coast and mountain communities, some of the most exclusive and densely populated recreational dwelling areas of Sweden.
Of all the second homes registered in Stockholm County in 2001, more than a third was located on these islands. Since as many as 50 per cent of all second homes are located less than 37 kilometres from the owners' permanent home, there is considerable potential for conflict between the permanent residents and second-home owners in the amenity-rich surroundings of the greater urban areas.
Nordic Research
On the Nordic research agenda the social effects of second-home ownership in local communities is an issue of increasing interest. The socio-economic issues of second-home development on local and regional development more generally are complex, and have parallels with such themes as urban gentrification and studies of urban displacement.
Such studies indicate that with the influx of an increasing number of second-home owners, local households may begin to feel displaced, and that this situation can be connected to private actions and interventions that apparently privilege high income in-movers.
This is underscored by the fact that the socio-economic demographics of second home owners are identical in all the Nordic countries: compared to the general population they tend to be relatively older (>55 years), well educated, wealthy and with a high disposable income. This has created a new breed of urban stakeholders on rural issues, and created new fears that in some rural communities the municipality risks becoming a double society with a 'them and us' discourse between 'locals' and second home owners.
By Jon M. Steineke