A new regulation that deals with how and to whom universities are allowed to sublet housing to takes effect on 1 January 2023. Current contracts, as well as offers made before 1 January 2023, are not affected by this.

As you might be aware, Lund University and by extension, LU Accommodation, is part of the Swedish government and as part of the public sector we have laws and regulations that decide what we can do and how we can do it. 

The legal precedent

An earlier regulation from 1993 (1993:528) decided universities are the exception to the rule that no government entity is allowed to rent housing for the purpose of subletting to individuals. It also stipulates that we are allowed to only rent out to two subgroups. 9 a § 1 a and b allows universities to sublet to foreign students in exchange programs with other countries, or guest researchers by the university, conditioned that they are not employed by the university.

A further exception (U2010/04277/UH) from the government and a decision from our vice chancellor is the basis for how we work today, who has priority and who is guaranteed for housing with us. However, now in the recent year the government has worked on a new regulation that should better specify and clarify how we are allowed to work. The purpose of the new regulation (2022:1515) is to secure the internationalization of the university and the mobility of researchers.

Summary

In summary (personal summary and translation; not all-encompassing and reserved for errors in translation), this means the new groups we are allowed to rent out to (from 2022:1515 3 §) are:

1. Students doing parts of their studies at the university within the frame of an exchange program with another, foreign university.
2. Students doing bachelors or masters level studies who are required to pay a study fee to Lund University according to 2010:543,
3. Ph.D. students that have started their studies in the last 6 months,
4. Guest researchers at Lund university, on condition that they are not employed by the university
5. Employees at the university that
   1. Have been employed at most 6 months,
   2. Mainly work with research or artistic research, and
   3. Have taken their doctorate degree at most 5 years before the employment at the university started.

The changes

So what does this mean? The changes of who we are allowed to rent out to, are as follows.

We keep the possibility to rent out to:

• Fee-paying students
• Students in exchange programs from foreign universities

We get extended possibilities to rent out to:

• PhDs
  • Under the condition that the rental agreement starts during their first 6 months of employment
• Researchers
  • Have been employed at most 6 months,
  • Mainly works with research or artistic research, and
  • Have taken their doctorate degree at most 5 years before the employment at the university started.

We lose the possibility to rent out to:

• European students at bachelor’s or master’s level
• Swedish students at any level.

These are the changes as they stand, taking effect on 1 January 2023. Note that any current or newly created rental agreements in December is not affected by this change.

Even with the new regulation, we still need a decision from the vice chancellor on how our order of priority is going to be, for the autumn semester. We will update our web page when it starts to become relevant.