Introduction to Swedish Housing System

Information on the different types of housing options, introduction to rental as well as process to purchase a house in Sweden. For any specific questions, open a thread with Housing and ask away 😊

Housing Market — how does it work

• In Sweden there are primarily three forms of housing commonly that are used:
• Individual house (Swedish: äganderätt) — You live in your own house on your own land. If you choose to buy a house on its own land, you will essentially make decisions and assume responsibility for everything to do with your property.
• Housing cooperative apartment or row-house (Swedish: bostadsrätt) — You live in an apartment or row-house and have the right to live there. You and the other people opening properties in the association together own the property and are members of a communal association, known as a housing cooperative association (Swedish: bostadsrättsförening or BRF). The regulations vary from association to association, but you are not allowed to rent out without permission from the board of the housing association.
• Rental (Swedish: hyresrätt) — You live in an apartment and rent your residence. You can also rent a house, but the most common arrangement is that you rent an apartment and pay a monthly sum.

Renting a property in Sweden

First-hand rentals (Swedish: förstahandskontrakt)

• A first-hand contract refers to direct renting from the landlord of a property.
• Renting first-hand usually entails that an open-ended contract applies and you have tenure protection from day 1.
• This also is the reason why first-hand rentals are difficult to come by and the average queuing time is 7 years in the bigger cities of Sweden.
• The process of getting first-hand rentals often requires registering for a queue. There are both local and national, private and public websites where you can look for a place to rent but the easiest is to start with the public municipality website in the region you are looking for it.
• For Stockholm, please find more information and start queueing here.
• For Gothenburg, please find more information and start queueing here.

Second-hand rentals (Swedish: andrahandskontrakt)

• Second-hand renting is where you rent from the tenant who has the first-hand contract (in most other countries, this is called subletting).
• It is important to ensure that the landlord has approved the rental — for apartments this is the housing cooperative association that needs to approve the renting out of the property.
• Most housing cooperative associations only approve 1 year at a time and therefore often the rental agreements are limited to 1 year.
• In Sweden, housing is commonly rented out unfurnished.
• Rental agreements vary by landlords — some include everything from electricity, wi-fi, heating etc. in the monthly rent while others add these on top based on the consumption. If you have an agreement in Swedish, reach out to us for help and we can check what is included.
• A few english websites where you can find rental properties are https://bostad.blocket.se/p2/en/ and https://www.samtrygg.se/
• You can find information about your rights as a tenant from the Swedish Consumer Agency here.

The process of buying a property in Sweden

• In Sweden, the seller is responsible for finding and paying the real estate agent for selling the property.
• Before starting to browse for potential properties, it is important to ensure that you meet the minimum mortgage requirement which requires the buyer to not borrow more than 85% of the property value.
• Understand how much you could borrow by using the calculator on the following website in English and get an idea about the properties you could be looking at.
• You need to obtain a written loan agreement (Swedish: lånelöfte) from any bank to be able to bid on property to show that real estate agent that you are a serious buyer who can buy the property if the bid goes through. Any bank can provide such a letter and it does not matter which bank provides this to you as for the final loan, you can negotiate with different banks and go with the one that best suits your needs.
• Start by browsing for potential properties on www.booli.se or www.hemnet.se which are the most common websites for finding property.
• Upon finding a property you like, you can either contact the real-estate agent managing the sale or just go to the open viewing with other potential interested buyers.
• During the viewing it is important that you take the time to investigate the property carefully. This is because buyers have an obligation to investigate the property and once you have signed a contract you cannot invoke the seller’s responsibility for any defects or blemishes in the property that you could have discovered. You can request for an individual viewing after the open viewing if you are interested in the property to conduct a thorough inspection.
• In Sweden, property bidding processes are common, with prices often exceeding the advertised amount, but the closing price can also be lower. Bids in Sweden are non-binding until both parties sign a purchase agreement, and sellers can withdraw from the sale at any point before signing. The estate agent must share all bids with the seller until a contract is signed.
• Once the bid is accepted, the contract signing process is initiated by the real estate agent. It outlines the possession date, the down-payment amount (usually 10% of the selling price), the date by which it should be paid, what is included in the property, the cleaning requirement and so forth.
• Between the contract signing and possession period, you can work with banks to find the right loan structure and offer — more on the loan process in a different guide.
• On the date of possession, a final meeting takes place at the estate agent’s or the buyer’s bank’s office. The final documents are signed, the remaining 90% of the selling price is transferred to the seller and keys are transferred to you.
• House insurance needs to be arranged from the date of possession.

Can’t find the answer you are looking for or want more information on any of the above topics, open a thread and send across your question to us and we will be happy to help you!