This thesis examines all historical and present day rent control models in the context of the Swedish housing market, both in form and substance. The systematic study of the historical development illustrates how varieties of rent control regimes, i.e. rent setting regulations, have been a permanent feature in the Swedish rental market since 1942 when a rent freezing act was introduced. In a long reregulation process between mid-1950s and mid-1980s, the rent control transformed from a matter of public law to private law. As the latter, legislative initiatives over said decades have effectively established an all-encompassing legislative infrastructure subjecting all residential tenancy contracts in the primary and the secondary housing market, but also hotel like lettings, to regulations which aim to establish a fair rent.

The aim of the thesis is to determine what constitutes a fair rent in the Swedish residential tenancy law. The thesis finds that the concept of fair rent refers to a rent that does not exceed the applicable price ceiling – the objective price. Fairness of the subjectively applied rent is therefore assessed in relation to compliance with the permissible price. Divergence from the objective price is considered unfair if it contravenes the ceiling. The concept of fair rent derives its meaning from seven regulative models in the legal infrastructure. The main regulative models are found in the use value system – a system that is dominated by the collective bargaining regime where the Tenant's union enjoys a monopolylike position. The alternatives, contract models of different constructions, are found both within the scope of the use value system and outside. Within the co-operative rental sector, both an association model and the models of the use value-system can be found. The regulative models are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Several regulative models can be simultaneously applicable, whereby the same apartment can command several 'fair rents' − none less fair than the other. The arbitrary construction of fairness and its application on the rental market is the result of legislative initiatives, necessitated as reactive measures, and political compromises.