Following upon the Stockholm exposition in 1930 and the introduction of a new aesthetical and architectural thinking, some Swedish building companies and real estate owners fully embraced the new ideal. They started to assemble their own socio-political welfare ambitions concerning housing with additional services into housing projects. From 1930 to the beginning of the Million Housing Project in 1965, innovative building projects by either of these players, especially in the larger Swedish cities like Gothenburg, Malmö, and Stockholm, were realized. The project targeted different user groups in different ages, with different social background and preferences, stretching from collective housing to individualized design solutions. In these projects, both aesthetics and architecture played an essential role as material and immaterial assets for promoting the new housing and the long-term management of the estate. An often-used term in colloquial Swedish for this type of building with subsequent real-estate management is the Master Builder’s Management model, in the following MBM model.The MBM model refers to a former legal requirement of the first national Swedish building act of 1874 that building entrepreneurs had to be approved by the municipal building administration as means to avoid overcrowding in poorly built housing. Even after the reform of the building act in 1931, the title was associated with great societal esteem, but achieved during the rest of the 20th century a connotation of being either obsolete or representing building quality. The MBM model is in stark contrast to management models that have evolved since the 1990s. These models are influenced by new public management in which the practical knowledge of building and maintenance becomes secondary to financial calculations and predictions.Nevertheless, the large majority of privately owned Swedish rental housing companies are managed according to principles that can associated with the MBM model. These principles suggest a continuous maintenance in line with the aesthetical and architectural vision, careful alignment between tenant profile and type of flat, and financial planning based on building degradation and local knowledge of market. The present study is focused on a housing company in the city of Malmö which openly adheres to the MBM model. Preliminary findings suggest that the choice of management model can be related to a personal view by the company owners that is motivated by an emotional attachment to the building craft and the building itself. The combination of architecture and an engaged ownership constitutes a complex system of agency in which maintenance, tenants and mutual connections creates a specific being-in-the-world-ness of real estate management. This phenomenon seems to be an essential factor for creating successful smaller rental housing companies that are mainly active on a local market.