About Boverket

Boverket – the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning – is a central government authority. We answer to The Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure . We deal with developments within housing, building and other planning-related casework in Sweden.

Our purpose

We gather relevant facts and statistics in Sweden and internationally to describe, understand, forecast and make policy suggestions. We undertake evaluations and impact assessments of policy initiatives at national and regional levels. Boverket supervises town and country planning in Sweden from legislative, procedural and architectural perspectives. Development of sustainable regions and communities and for quality of life is always in focus in various parts of our work. Examples of these are seen in our work with infrastructure and transport, the importance of urban environment and social issues, and development of the planning process and it's instruments. The circulation of best practice is an important part of our work.

Analysing the Housing Market

In order to describe the current housing market and to make qualified onward prognoses to assist political decisions. Our experts follow the development of the housing market, domestic migration trends and other societal fluctuations. Distribution of subsidies and issuing of credit guarantees are also tasks we do. In the last couple of years the housing market has been booming, which has led to a shortage of apartments in most parts of Sweden. 

Issuing Building Regulations

Swedish Building Regulations are issued by Boverket. The regulations must not contradict with the EU Internal Market and each amendment thus must be accordingly notified the European Commission. In the last years energy efficiency has become more important, but the authority strives not to sub-optimize any single dimension at the expense of other obligations. Recently the Swedish parliament decided to prohibit municipalities to request different performances from a building than those stated in the national building regulation.

Supervising the Municipal and Country Planning

In Sweden, traditional town and country planning is mainly a municipal responsibility. Each of our 290 municipalities is requested by law to have an updated comprehensive plan. This plan outlines the political vision of how the municipality should develop. The municipalities are also the public bodies entitled to develop and decide on legally binding detailed development plans.

Regional county councils (elected by the regional population) and county administrative boards (governed by national representatives) are working with the regional development perspective. The documents – Regional Development Plans and Regional Growth Programmes – should take notice of the municipal comprehensive plans and vice versa. That co-operative approach is thought to result in a regional "spatial planning".

Who we are

Boverket is led by a our Director General. We are organized in four departments: the Administrative Department and three Operations Departments.

The main office is located in Karlskrona, a naval town by the Baltic Sea coastline. But there's also a small department office in Malmö. Our tasks are regulated by a general instruction issued by the Swedish parliament. The central government supplies more detailed commissions to Boverket.

Contact us

Boverket
Box 534 
371 23 Karlskrona

Phone: +46 455 35 30 00

registraturen@boverket.se