The uni semester is about to start and there are no student apartments left in Gothenburg. The queue is about a year long, and new students have no option but to look for sublets, share houses or rent a room in a private home.

Gunnar Wikehult at SGS Student Housing advises students to start their program here anyway.

- It usually works out somehow once you are here. You may have to live somewhere temporary but the queues usually drop after New Year's, he tells GP.

The shortage in student housing in Gothenburg has been significant since 2006. An important factor is that no new student apartments have been built.

- The subventions for building student apartments have been taken away so it is too expensive to build. The rents would be too high for the students, says Gunnar Wikehult.
SGS Student Housing has one project at the moment; about 100 new student apartments will be built at Eklandagatan. But they won't be ready for moving in until at the earliest 2013. There is also a preliminary plan for 30 new apartments at Lindholmen.

The student housing companies and the student union estimate that Gothenburg is in need of 2000 new apartments before 2015, and then another 2000 apartments before 2020. But Gunnar Wikehult does not think it is possible.

Trollhättan in western Sweden was lifted forward as a good example in a report from Sweden's National Union of Students (SFS) on Monday. Here new students are guaranteed housing within one month after arrival.

- We have an agreement with the municipality owned housing company and the municipality about offering housing within a month. If there are no student apartments available we offer a normal apartment at a discounted price, says Kajsa Sköld, chairman of the student union at Högskolan Väst in Trollhättan, to GP.