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Journal of Nordregio no 3, 2007

Second homes in the Nordic countries

In total the Nordic countries at present have a stock of some 1.8 million secondary homes. This can be compared to the total number of primary homes, i.e. dwellings, which is calculated at just over 11.6 million. The growth of secondary homes is definitively higher than the growth of the Nordic populations and is creating new challenges for planning and regional development. In a somewhat longer perspective the growth of secondary homes in the Nordic countries has been uneven. For Denmark, and to some extent also for Sweden, the most intensive construction of new 'summer houses', as they were called, was timed with the establishment of the modern welfare state between the late 1950s and the mid 1970s. For Norway, Finland and Iceland however construction-booms for secondary homes mostly seem to have been a phenomenon of the last 10-20 years.

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Contents

More homes but not more people
– For recreation and investment
Piling up around urban centres
How many houses abroad?
The impact of recreational homes
Nordic topography of second homes
From recreation to retirement
'Them and us' and urban sprawl
Also your hut is your home
Second homes in Denmark
Immigration and depopulation