Sweden-Based Qasa Expands to Norway

The Sweden-based rentals specialist Qasa has expanded to Norway, stating "the Norwegian rental market has challenges that we can solve”.

Qasa is Sweden's largest platform for renting out housing. As part of Vend (formerly Schibsted Marketplaces) the company also has close ties to Blocket in Sweden and Oikotie in Finland.

Since February of this year, Maria Björkander has taken over as CEO and is now taking the company's growth journey further by launching the service in Norway. There, Qasa is also integrated with FINN, Norway's largest marketplace for housing.

Maria Björkander, CEO at Qasa, said:

"The Norwegian rental market is very different from the Swedish one as it is essentially unregulated and 90% consists of private rentals, in other words an obvious place for Qasa. Landlords as well as tenants benefit from our digital solution that makes it easier and safer to both rent and let a home.

"The Norwegian housing market is also struggling with a housing shortage and discrimination is a problem that the Norwegian government, among others, has addressed.

"Many tenants experience uncertainty and lack of security in their housing situations and 47% of foreign-born people in Norway state that they have experienced discrimination in a housing context. These are problems we can solve. We know that our product contributes to reducing discrimination, increasing accessibility and making the rental market accessible to more people, for example by being able to rent without a deposit. Finding a home should feel as easy as living in it." [Translated from Swedish]