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Local Sweden
a day ago
- Business
- Local Sweden
Is autumn 2025 a good time to buy property in Sweden?
Apartment prices may have fallen this summer but Swedish households still expect property prices to rise in the coming year. So what are experts saying? Advertisement Prospective home buyers looking to snag a property in Sweden might be interested to note that the cost of buying an apartment fell by 'quite a lot more than normal' from June to July, according to Robert Boije, chief economist with state-owned lender SBAB. The drop was most marked in the greater Stockholm and Gothenburg areas, with prices falling by 3.4 and 4 percent respectively. Northern Sweden bucked the trend, with apartments costing 2.3 percent more in July than the previous month. While apartment prices were generally down, the average cost of buying a detached house increased by 0.2 percent. According to SBAB's economist, aside from seasonal effects a reason for falling apartment prices could be the fact that many housing associations (Bostadsrättsföreningar - BRF) delayed increasing monthly maintenance fees while interest rates were rising. Even though interest rates have since fallen, bostadsrättsföreningar may still find they need to adjust fee prices upwards, said Boije. READ ALSO: How to analyse a Swedish housing association's finances before you buy an apartment Advertisement Record number of detached houses sold in July While there were fewer apartments on the market this year than last, the opposite was true of detached houses. Hans Flink, a business development manager for Svensk Mäklarstatistik, noted that a record 4,200 detached houses were sold in Sweden in July. 'If we take the period from January to July, only the pandemic year 2021 saw more detached houses sold. It's somewhat surprising,' said Flink, whose number-crunching organisation is fully owned by the Association of Swedish Real Estate Agents. Flink put the increased sales down to deferred demand. Back in 2022, rocketing inflation and sky-high energy prices led to many people putting their dreams of moving to a new house on hold. As for the drop in apartment prices, Flink was unconcerned, attributing the downward trend to recurring 'seasonal effects'. Advertisement Lower interest rate costs for mortgages Anyone considering taking the plunge on the property market will be interested to know that the average variable mortgage interest rate in Sweden dropped slightly to 2.83 percent in July, according to price comparison service Zmarta. Skandiabanken has the lowest variable rate of 2.73 percent, followed by Landshypotek with 2.76 percent. Ica-bank's rate was the highest at 2.92 percent, just ahead of Swedbank with 2.90 percent and Nordea with 2.89 percent. 'We can see that the earlier rate cut in May is now starting to show in mortgage rates even if there is a certain delay,' said Zmarta's economist Charlie Tideman. 'Because in practice variable rates are fixed for three months it can take a while before changes become noticeable for households,' he added. EXPLAINED: How to get the best deal on your mortgage in Sweden Households expect property prices to rise In general Swedish households expect property prices to rise in the coming year, according to SEB bank's property price indicator. The proportion of households predicting a price increase rose by two percentage points to 48 percent in July. Just 13 percent of households expect homes to become cheaper, a drop of two percentage points compared to the previous month. "This month's rise should primarily be seen as a stabilisation rather than a new upswing in house price expectations," said SEB economist Américo Fernández in a statement. Property experts will be watching closely to see how the market develops in August. In general property prices in Sweden increase in August before retreating somewhat from September to December. Based on SBAB's calculations for the year to date, and taking average seasonal adjustments into account, apartment prices for 2025 as a whole are expected to be three percent lower than the previous year. By contrast, the price of detached houses is expected to be unchanged compared to 2024. If this still holds true at the end of the year is will represent an unusual development, according to SBAB's Robert Boije ,given that interest rates have dropped considerably and consumer purchasing power has begun recovering after a protracted slump. READ ALSO: The ultimate guide to property in Sweden
Local Sweden
04-08-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Property prices in Sweden fall 'more than normal for July'
Residential property prices fell by 0.7 percent in Sweden in July, according to new statistics from the state-owned mortgage lender SBAB. Although residential prices normally dip in June, July and August, this month's fall was "by quite a lot more than normal," Robert Boije, SBAB's chief economist, told the TT newswire Advertisement According to the SBAB Booli Housing Price Index, apartment prices were down 2.6 percent across Sweden compared to June, with the highest falls in Greater Gothenburg (4 percent) and Greater Stockholm (3.4 percent). Prices for detached houses rose 0.2 percent across Sweden, but were down 2.6 percent in Greater Stockholm and 0.7 percent in Central Sweden. The only region where apartment prices rose was in Northern Sweden, which saw a rise of 2.3 percent. "The trend suggests that even if you take away the seasonal effect, we are seeing falling apartment prices, while for houses, prices are more or less flat," Robert Boije, SBAB's chief economist, said in a press release. He said apartment prices over the whole of 2025 were now on track to fall by around 3 percent, while the price of detached houses is expected to remain stagnant. "If this happens, it will be a remarkable development given that mortgage interest rates have fallen sharply and households' real incomes and purchasing power are rising significantly." He said the drop in apartment prices probably reflected recent rises in the monthly fee or 'avgift' levied by many housing cooperatives, rises which have lagged the underlying rise in interest rates. "It is probably the gradually increased monthly fees – and perhaps expectations of future increased fees – in cooperative housing associations that we are now seeing reflected in both fewer apartments sold and lower apartment prices." Advertisement
Local Sweden
02-07-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Swedish property prices continue downward trend
Swedish property prices continued to fall in June, and it looks like they'll keep falling, according to SBAB chief economist Robert Boije. Advertisement Property prices fell by 0.9 percent nationally last month, according to an index put together by SBAB and property site Booli. Prices do tend to fall in June but even with seasonal effects removed they saw a drop of 0.2 percent, which is a bit more than usual, Boije said, adding that this reflects a general trend for the year so far. "We've seen a negative trend all spring, and that's despite the fact that we have significantly lower interest rates than we did at this point last year," he told the TT newswire. Boije believes that external factors, such as US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and geopolitical instability in the Middle East, are two possible reasons behind things slowing down on the housing market. "In that kind of situation you become more cautious about making these kinds of large decisions and how much you're willing to pay," he said. That could also be one of the reasons the market for detached houses (villor) has seen the largest drop, with a 3.2 percent decrease in the Stockholm region in particular. "We know prises for villor are highest in Stockholm and maybe concern about global issues is affecting things to a greater extent in areas where prices are highest," he said. Advertisement SBAB predicted that property prices would rise by 3 percent this year in its latest market forecast. Boije does not agree, however, with the theory that prices have reached their lowest point, citing seasonal factors and the fact that longer fixed-term mortgage rates have not yet dropped. "Those are the key things that are important for property prices," he said. "Instead, I'd say we might have to revise our property price forecast downwards for this year," he told TT. Boije added that further interest rate cuts, among other things, could get property prices to rise again. "Say that Trump stops all this stuff with tariffs and we get a calmer global situation, those could also be positive factors," he added.
