Areas of Barkarbystaden
Barkarbystaden is several blocks each with its own character — the squares of the new centre, Lansengatan’s small shops and the retail blocks to the west. Pick an area to see its restaurants, cafés and shops.
Map of Barkarbystaden
Sveatorget
Sveatorget is Barkarbystaden's central square. Around the square and the blocks along Barkarbyvägen and Diagonalgatan are the grocery store, the pharmacy, the optician and several of the district's restaurants.
Safirtorget
Safirtorget opened gradually in autumn 2024 and is the district's newest square; next to it is Safirparken, inaugurated in May 2026. The blocks around the square and Diagonalgatan hold several of the district's restaurants.
Lansengatan
Along Lansengatan are several of the neighbourhood's smaller businesses – Asian fusion, a dessert café, a florist, a hairdresser and a nail salon – and at the corner of Barkarbyvägen, sushi and poké.
Stora torget
Stora torget is the district's western square, at the end of Barkarbyvägen next to Flottiljen. Around the square and the nearest streets are a pizzeria, sushi, burek and the district's two key-card gyms.
Flottiljen
Flottiljen köpkvarter on Kalvshällavägen gathers everyday shopping: ICA Maxi with a café, Systembolaget, a pharmacy, a drop-in clinic, a gym, electronics and several places to eat. Two hours of free parking in the garage.
Barkarby Gate
Barkarby Gate is the retail quarter closest to the district: sports, home, hobby and leisure shops, a gym, a butcher's hall and fast food, with three hours of free parking.
Why are new apartments standing empty in Barkarbystaden?
Because rents in the new builds sit far above the older stock. According to Newsec's Property Outlook for spring 2026, as reported by Järfällatidningen on 25 April 2026, an average newly built rental in Barkarbystaden costs 2,970 kronor per square metre and year – 12,375 kronor a month for 50 square metres, and 13,610 kronor in the newest buildings. That is more than in Östermalm, where the equivalent rent was 7,875 kronor, even though incomes are lower: the median income in Barkarbystaden is around 348,000 kronor a year, against just over 520,000 in Östermalm's rentals.
The regional housing agency has struggled to find tenants. Between 1 June 2024 and 31 May 2026, 163 adverts for rentals in Järfälla went back to their landlords without the agency finding anyone to take them, the second-highest figure of any of the agency's areas after Södertälje, according to Mitt i Järfälla on 10 August 2026. The agency says these are nearly always new builds – "well over 90 per cent" – though Mitt i also points out that a flat it failed to let back then need not be empty today. Already in autumn 2025 Järfällatidningen reported hundreds of empty rentals, around a hundred in Brokvarteret alone. Landlords answer with discounts: Brokvarteret takes up to 15 per cent off the rent in the first year and up to 7.5 per cent in the second on selected vacant flats, Älvan up to 20 per cent for the first 18 months.
Construction has followed. 623 homes were completed in Järfälla in 2025 against 1,461 the year before, according to Mitt i on 2 April 2026 – fewer than the 850 a year the municipality has to build until 2035 under the metro agreement, and a new, if lower, pace is not expected until 2028. In January 2026 Riksbyggen handed block 10 and its 161 homes back to the municipality, saying the project had become commercially impossible to carry out. Titania went the other way and broke ground on block 12 on 15 December 2025, arguing that the time to build is when others hold back: the block is due in summer 2028, when few new homes are expected to be finished. And in Boverket's housing market survey Järfälla rates its housing market as a whole as in balance in both 2025 and 2026, after a shortage in 2024.
Source: Järfällatidningen 2026-04-25 · Mitt i Järfälla 2026-08-10 · Järfällatidningen 2025-10-20 · Mitt i Järfälla 2026-04-02 · Mitt i Järfälla 2026-01-16 · Sveaviken PM – Brokvarteret · Sveaviken PM – Älvan · Titania 2025-12-16 · Boverket – bostadsmarknadsenkäten · read 2026-09-26