How Uddevallahem reached ZERO vacancies, despite a tough market

When the market is changing fast, it is important to act in time - and correctly. In the fall of 2023, the signals started to come: vacancies were increasing among industry colleagues, and interest in vacant apartments was falling. At Uddevallahem, it was clear that something needed to be done to keep vacancies down and avoid increased rent losses.

With a change in approach, a clear vision and data-driven letting, Uddevallahem managed to achieve an impressive result - zero vacancies, despite many others struggling with vacant apartments.

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Background and challenges

Uddevallahem is a public housing company with around 4,700 homes and 780 premises. With both a social responsibility and business requirements, a low vacancy rate is crucial for the business to function.

In 2023, the company started to see worrying trends. In just two years, the average number of expressions of interest per apartment had dropped from 44 to 29 - and it was still falling. At the same time, colleagues in the industry reported increasing vacancies.

In this situation, there were classic “quick fixes” available - such as rent discounts, lower income requirements or allowing applicants to keep their points after moving in. But Uddevallahem wanted to take a more long-term approach to the challenge.

Martin Fröjd, Customer Center Manager at Uddevallahem, explains what cooperation usually looks like between the rental department and the management departments of real estate companies:

Collaboration 1.0

Adherence to established routines and a “we've always done it that way” mindset
Decision-making mandates are diffuse or unspoken
There is uncertainty around decision-making, which becomes inefficient.
Lead times occur while waiting for someone else to make a decision
Watering the flowers that are alive, i.e. focusing on what already works well instead of what needs development and improvement.

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A new strategy for letting

The team at Uddevallahem didn't want to sit back and wait for the market's downward trends to affect their bottom line. Instead, they took a proactive approach to preventing vacancies through good collaboration and data-driven decisions.

Martin Fröjd had a clear idea of how the leasing process and cooperation with the management should look like.

Cooperation 2.0 - A shared vision:

By analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the business, it becomes clear which areas need extra focus
Put yourself in the other party's shoes and understand each other's reality
With clear mandates and roles, there is no uncertainty about responsibilities
Identify bottlenecks and streamline the work with the help of continuous analysis of the leasing process.
Create security by ensuring that everyone knows what applies
Work proactively and focus on the entire portfolio - not just the apartments that are easiest to rent out

An approach where everyone takes responsibility:

Employees were given clearer responsibilities and more involvement in the hiring process.
Strengthened self-leadership - everyone is expected to take initiative and drive the work forward.
A more sales-driven mindset - everyone has a responsibility to minimize vacancies.

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Data-driven work with Homepal

To quickly identify changes and make the right decisions, Uddevallahem needed a solution that could provide a clear overview of rentals in real time.

By implementing Homepal, the team gained:
✅ A clear overview of the rental situation - to quickly identify bottlenecks.
✅ Data-driven decision-making - no more guesswork, instead act on facts.
✅ Visualization of progress - everyone could see exactly how things were going.
✅ Clearer responsibilities - nothing fell between the cracks.
✅ Ability to act in time - instead of discovering problems too late.

“We needed an effective way to quickly capture warning signals and visualize them. Homepal makes it easy to understand exactly where we need to take action.”
- Martin Fröjd, Customer Service Manager, Uddevallahem

Resultatet: Noll vakans – trots en tuff marknad

Genom att kombinera en tydlig strategi, ökat samarbete och datadrivna insikter kunde Uddevallahem undvika ökade vakanser och behålla full uthyrning i en tid när många andra kämpade.

Så gjorde Uddevallahem för att nå resultaten:
✅ Tydlig målsättning – med fokus på både proaktivitet och delaktighet.
✅ Datadrivet arbetssätt – uppföljning och insatser baserade på realtidsdata.
✅ Effektivare samarbeten – uthyrning och förvaltning arbetar nu tätare ihop.
✅ Tydliga ansvarsområden – ingen osäkerhet kring vem som ansvarar för vad.

Tack vare stort engagemang och välfungerande samarbete med fokus på datadrivenhet har Uddevallahem idag full kontroll över sina uthyrningar – och verktygen för att agera snabbt när marknaden förändras.

One of Uddevallahem's rental dashboards

Disclaimer: This image is an example.

See all our ready-made rental dashboards here: https://homepal.se/dashboards?category=rental →
...or do as Martin at Uddevallahem and build your own dashboard with our ready-made key figures: https://homepal.se/kpis →