The subject of this thesis concerns the rental housing provision, where the municipality collaborates with private housing actors to fulfil their municipal housing provision responsibility. The research problem can be understood in the context of an integrated rental market model, where a seemingly altered role of the municipal housing company as well as the establishment of so-called institutional investors have exacerbated the housing situation for a socio-economic marginalized group of people. The rental tenure has in the last half a century been subject to change, as political decisions and the introduction of law reforms, ultimately has resulted in a diminishing public housing stock in the 21st century. Simultaneously, the 2011 nya allbolagen law reform saw the MHC from then on abiding to business-like principles, with implications being stricter rental requirements amongst their rental housing stock. This has arguably created a new form of public housing, where a growing excluded group on the housing market has prevailed, the so-called “inbetweeners”. 

The aim of this thesis is to understand the argumentations for the rental housing requirements set by both public and private housing providers in relation to their perceived role on the secondary housing market in three Swedish medium-sized municipalities. The secondary housing market is elucidated in this thesis to understand the social responsibility in the housing provision by both public and private property investors, where rental housing requirements amongst them are studied, which could entail the state of the secondary housing market in the individual case studies. The thesis is framed by path dependence theories, together with theorizations within the financialization of housing, as well as new public management (NPM). 

The findings suggests that the secondary housing market have been permeated by NPM and financialization practices which have altered the role of the studied actors concerning the social responsibility in the housing provision. The rental requirements can be understood as changing depending on the state of the rental housing market, where vacant apartments suggest a dynamic between the housing providers and the municipal social services where a noticeable acceptance towards the clients on the secondary housing market have followed the increasing number of vacancies. Furthermore, the results suggest that the institutional investors are important actors in the collaborative processes between the public and the private in the secondary housing market. Ultimately, the contemporary form of the Swedish integrated rental market model and its implications in the included case-studies suggest that there might be a need for a change in the path which Swedish housing policy has followed in its reluctancy to introduce a means-tested social housing sector.