For a miraculous vision of what it’s like to live in a net-zero future, look no further than Skelleftea. The northern Swedish city proved irresistible to Alistair Coley and his fiancée, Claudia Collins, who sold up in the UK and moved there this year to take up “green” jobs.
In February Coley, 25, was working as a production engineer for a battery technology firm in Sunderland. In other circumstances the northeast of England might have levelled up and offered a job for life for this skilled engineer, but the Swedish battery maker Northvolt came calling first. The couple’s decision to move was instant.
“My parents lived in the Middle East during the Eighties and early Nineties. They must have instilled in me a curiosity about living abroad,” says Collins, 24, who trained as a teacher but took a job at Northvolt onboarding recruits. “While we loved our three-bedroom house in Sunderland, which has a garden and is a short walk to the beach, this opportunity was too intriguing to pass up.”
Skelleftea is well known for its Wood Hotel, even though it only opened last month. This Scandi-cool “plyscraper��� — it is fashioned from laminated wood — with its hip restaurant and sky bar on the 19th floor, show that the skyline is going the same way as the city’s house prices.
Prices in Skelleftea increased 28.2 per cent last year and apartment prices are 35.9 per cent higher as workers from 90 countries have arrived to join Northvolt’s new gigafactory. Skelleftea recently had its first million-pound apartment sale. An attractive detached house can easily cost £450,000, says the broker Tina Edler of the estate agency Fastighetsbyran.
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Historically, jobs were in mining, including for gold (Skelleftea was once known as Guldstaden, or “gold town”). The wider population is about 75,000 and growing rapidly. Yet most striking of all is the sense of space. Skelleftea is surrounded by subarctic forest. Winters mean short days and snow, illuminated at night by the moon, stars and northern lights.
As visitors come in to land at the airport they are greeted by a wooden control tower rising from the pine and spruce forest. On the way into town there are wooden buildings, wooden bridges and even a wooden multistorey car park.
“We talk about the carbon footprint of construction, meaning its negative carbon impact,” says Robert Schmitz, an architect at White Arkitekter, the firm that designed the Wood Hotel and adjoining Sara Culture Centre. “However, there is also a carbon handprint — that is to say, the carbon captured in the materials used. Not only do prefabricated wooden structures minimise transportation activity and waste, but they are a great store of carbon. They can easily net out to zero.”
Residential buildings can be prefabricated too, and Coley and Collins were eager to explore their options once they had sold their house in Sunderland for £255,000. “Planning rules proved an impediment,” Coley says. “We opted to buy a traditionally built bungalow that we could put our stamp on. It comes with great insulation, triple-glazed windows and a rock source heat pump.”
They had to get a personal identity number (similar to a national insurance number in the UK) before they could become Swedish residents. This process tends to be quicker if you are applying as a non-EU applicant, according to Coley, because they do not have an EU form of identity to use. Mortgages can be approved in principle, with a 15 per cent deposit, and building surveys are free. Then the bidding starts — by text message. “It can be dangerously addictive, especially in the evening after a glass of wine,” Collins says.
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The couple paid £360,000 for a south-facing, three-bedroom, 1,300 sq ft bungalow in Kage, a small town eight miles north of Skelleftea on the E4 dual carriageway. Prices are lower further out, but the couple felt that greater proximity to the city would prove to be a better investment.
“We didn’t want to feel overly isolated,” Collins says. “Skelleftea is a hub with lots of young people. Bars, brewpubs and restaurants are opening up all the time, especially on the waterfront. The different nationalities make for a diverse scene. One of our favourite spots is Rustique, which does a Swedish take on tapas.”
Going out was cheaper in Sunderland, but costs in Sweden are not rising as fast as in the UK, and salaries are much higher. In the couple’s income bracket, tax rates are comparable between the two countries, but the standard of living is better overall in Sweden, they say.
Some things are hard to come by in Skelleftea. When their cockapoo ate too much snow, the nearest vet was 90 minutes away in the city of Lulea, but they believe that better amenities and transport links are on their way. A direct flight to Amsterdam is due to take off in January 2022 and a straight route to the UK cannot be far behind, but the couple don’t expect to be returning regularly.
“Apart from the environmental considerations, we’re keen to integrate here,” Collins says. “The levels of trust and good manners, notably among children, are really striking. There is a total absence of antisocial behaviour, such as littering.”
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Coley and Collins balked at ice swimming and fermented fish, but they have taken up curling and saunas. They have also enjoyed spotting moose, reindeer, arctic hares and even wolves lurking around the back of the bungalow. “It’s very different to the beach in Sunderland,” Collins says. “It is a real adventure. We’ll return to England for our wedding, but we’ll also have a party with our new friends in Skelleftea, where we’re now expecting to be for the long term.”
