I feel for them

One of our acquaintances and his wife have since 25 years used all their savings and free time to build an architect's house in a suburb of Stockholm for themselves and their family. The house is 3,100 ft²  (310 m²) in several floors with an indoor pool. Our acquaintances have always said that their house will be their retirement.

The plan was that when they approached retirement age and the children had moved out, they would sell the house to buy a 1,500 ft² (150 m²) apartment in the Stockholm city district they wanted to live in. Unfortunately, the prices of apartments in Stockholm's city have increased significantly more than houses in Stockholm's suburbs, which means that the type of apartment they want to buy costs more than what a possible sale of the house entails.

The result is that instead of selling the house, buying an apartment and living on the surplus from the sale, they have to stay in the house. Since they have used all the money for the house over the years, neither of them has any private pension savings, the only future pension will be the state pension. Which is very small.

To have a good old age they must have access to money and the only "money" they have today is the house that has no mortgage. Because they don't have a permanent job, they will not be approved for a traditional mortgage, but have to take out a much more expensive loan with the house as collateral.