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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?
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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
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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'.
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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
