Creating positive social impact

Hemnet represents a well-functioning part of the property market for people with the opportunities and means to own a home. Having a roof over your head is a prerequisite for other aspects of life to function. Our basic principle of civic participation is to contribute to organisations and initiatives that operate from the belief that having a place to call home is a human right. We are committed to providing financial and human resources to projects and organisations whose beliefs we share, and who support everybody’s right to a place to call their own home.

Homelessness is devastating to individuals and comes at a high cost to society. Despite this, over 30,000 people in Sweden today live without a home to call their own. Many of them are found in Stockholm. Since 2019, Hemnet has been a proud partner of the NGO Stockholm City Mission and its initiative ”Bobyrån”. Bobyrån is part of Stockholm City Mission, which helps socially vulnerable people find a permanent housing solution. The target group for the initiative is people who are homeless, have a psychosocial problem and need some form of support. The principle is that people in need are given the opportunity to find their own housing without having to go through several steps, for example, in the form of social housing. In 2023, Bobyrån helped 72 people to a long-term home with reasonable rent.

In 2022, we expanded our social commitment by supporting people in need beyond Sweden’s borders through continuous contributions to Sweden for UNHCR. UNHCR is the refugee agency within the UN, whose mission is to protect the world’s refugees and actively advocate the right of all people to a safe home.

Apart from supporting Stockholm City Mission and Sweden for UNHCR with monetary donations, we strive to also utilise our platforms to spread knowledge about their work, hopefully leading to new members and donations. In February 2023, we hosted a streamed video interview with representatives from Stockholm City Mission, talking about their work with Bobyån and what companies and civilians can do to contribute. Stockholm City Mission also visited our office to educate employees in their projects, and in December they invited interested employees to come and do voluntary work for them, something we enabled during work hours. In December, we also initiated a Christmas fundraising campaign together with Sweden for UNHCR.

Read our full Annual and Sustainability Report here.