Housing is unaffordable. Young people cannot buy.
Everyone knows this, and the statistics exist.
But numbers in a report move nobody.
What happened
In August 2026 the Swedish developer Riksbyggen created its own index.
It is called the Square Metre Index.
It calculates how many square metres an average 25 year old can afford in a given town, using income, savings, mortgage conditions and local prices.
It covers all 209 municipalities.
The answer is 1.9 square metres in Stockholm. 3.1 in Gothenburg. 4.5 in Umea.
Of the 209 municipalities, 111 came in under ten square metres.
Then it built those numbers as three full scale micro homes.
You can walk inside them.
Over ten million TikTok views. Seventy five pieces of coverage. Sweden’s housing minister visited, and the work moved into political debate.
Why it worked
- Stand in front of a 1.9 square metre house and no explanation is needed
- 209 local versions means every regional outlet has its own story
- Defining the index makes the company the primary source on the topic
- It can be reissued annually, so one build earns coverage every year
They did not cite a statistic. They created one. That is the strongest part.
How a smaller company can use this
Most companies quote government statistics when discussing industry problems.
The trouble is that anyone quoting them writes the same article.
Build your own index instead.
- A demolition firm publishes a teardown timing index from building age and subsidies
- A staffing firm publishes days required to make one hire, by region
- A restaurant publishes the ceiling lunch price for this town, from cost and spend
Once you have it, always split it by area.
Splitting into 209 versions is what made it a story 209 local outlets could run.
And where you can, build the number as an object.
Big enough to stand beside, or to step inside, and one photograph carries it.
In short
Riksbyggen ran a two step play.
Create your own index, then build the number at full scale.
The index becomes an annual press asset. The object becomes a photograph that needs no caption.
At ASTER we break down over a hundred talked about campaigns to their structure and translate them into customer acquisition and hiring for your business. What index could your company publish every year? Let us design it together.
(We have structural breakdowns and a case collection ready. Please get in touch.)
