moving to Stockholm

[badg3r]

Relocating with DH and 2 DC at the end of this year. Does anyone have experience of renting/buying in greater Stockholm? How easy is it to find long term rental accom that is unfurnished? I've heard it is really hard. And how easy is buying without a permanent job contract in Sweden?

[scottswede]

I'm in Sweden, not Stockholm .I could give some general info though.
Can I ask why your moving to Sweden,If you don't have accommodation or a job?

[badg3r]

It is a bit complicated, we are moving for my work but due to the nature of it I will be on a renewable fixed term contract registered in another country so officially not employed in Sweden. DP will find a permanent job once the kids are settled, there are lots of jobs in his field in Stockholm and he and is Swedish. My work will help finding rental accom but we need something unfurnished and most of what they offer is only six month to a year contracts which is obviously not ideal for schools etc.

[scottswede]

If your dp is Swedish and won't have an issue finding work and your company is finding accommodation then I don't know what other advice to give I'm afraid.
Other than confirm that finding any accommodation in Stockholm is difficult.
Sorry to not be much help after all.....

[badg3r]

Yes that's what I'm concerned about. Speaking to others already there I am doubtful of being able to find something we are able to rent on a long term basis, everyone I have spoken to either sublets and moves every year, or has bought. You don't know much about finding long term rental properties do you?! Every time I ask anyone irl they just tell me it's really tough...

[scottswede]

www.hyrabostad.se/stockholm/
www.blocket.se/bostad/uthyres/lagenheter/stockholm
bostadsportal.se/hyresbostad/stockholm

Try these and good luck

[wilcafe]

hi, my family and i (DP+DS) have lived in stockholm for the last 2.5 years (americans), and we have been renting for the whole time through our company and had been looking to purchase a place since our contract is coming to an end.

your swedish partner will know alot more about the local practices such as Bostadsförmedlingen, but generally speaking you have 3 options -

1. rent a place using the public queue (Bostadsförmedlingen): positives - much cheaper rent, negatives - queue can be 20+ years long in the city (this is not an exaggeration or joke - parents put their babies into queue when they are born)
   

1. rent a place directly from the landlord, aka "second-hand": positives - avoid lengthy queues, possibly more inventory/choices depending on the neighborhood, negatives - expensive, you can expect anywhere between 1.5x - 3x the Bostadsförmedlingen rental price, also you may be forced to move (in worst cases) every year as there are restrictions on how long a landlord can rent their place out for
   

1. buy a place, positives - quality of interior is usually much nicer, far more inventory than renting, monthly mortgage will be on the order of public queue renting and you get tax benefits, and low interest rates, negatives - expensive property prices only continue to go up (positive reselling later but with risk), large down payment required as minimum (15%) up to 50% (to get the absolute lowest blended interest rate)
   

with regards to difficulty - because your partner is swedish you will/should avoid alot of the pitfalls and confusing caveats that comes with the housing market here in stockholm.

i would really suggest eliminating a few variables by setting your budget, desired location, size of dwelling, etc. and then go from there.

one thing to note is that unlike other countries much of the legwork is done by YOU, so realtor-led house finding is practically non-existent.

use //www.hemnet.se as your main search engine, then when you find a place, contact the agent listed on that property and start from there.

one thing to note is don't underestimate proximity to t-bana (subway), pendeltåg (surface train), or buses. being very near transportation points potentially shaves off anywhere between 10-15 mins to an hour per day which adds up REALLY quickly. another thing to think of is proximity to förskola (pre-school) depending on the age of your kids, but this is completely not in your control as the queue for förskolan is both terrible and frustrating.

good luck, and let me know if you have any other questions!

[languagelearner]

Forget about the public queue, it's heading for a breakdown according to an article in today's paper. (Read it yourself through Google translate www.svd.se/bostadskon-rekordlang--pa-vag-mot-sammanbrott) The queue is 7x larger than 15 years ago and, with current turnover, it would take 50 years before everyone has received a flat. Maybe you could claim you want to live in Vaxholm (far out, lower prices) as there is easy commuting with bus to central town + the commuter bus stops right outside the English school (one of them). At least it is a nice spot to live in, you can see for yourself on the site "hemnet" (website for all popular real estate agents).
That said, ten years ago I met on a economics conference an American who nearly cried of frustration how difficult it was to find a job if you're English-speaking and want to get into your field, as Swedish was required but not always quite relevant for the job tasks. I think they, the couple, had decided to move back, to the US, in his case.

[badg3r]

Thanks so much, very helpful! I will show this to DP and if you don't kind might be back with more questions. We could just about stretch to buying but I had been concerned about not having a permanent work contract making finding a mortgage difficult. But in my first searches, going by pictures alone, you do seem to get more for your money if buying than renting, which ties in with what you are saying too. We are going over to look at a few areas once the snow has melted so hopefully that will help to narrow it down. Any suggestions of nice areas slightly outbid the centre very much appreciated! Solna looks very nice (but also very expensive...!),

[languagelearner]

Among the cheapest you could find outside Stockholm, is probably in Grantorp in the municipality of Huddinge. The architecture makes me associate to Elephant and Castle London (although I've only seen the latter in pictures). Takes 15 minutes with commuter train to get to central Stockholm, the train station is within walking distance, and it lies right next to the south university. Prices are climbing upward, but the mortgage could be within your range perhaps. There are few areas in Stockholm that are truly not nice. Check out which houses are on sale through HSB housing cooperatives, order their year end reports (usually online), and you can also check out the umbrella organisation "HSB" on the internet. If you want Solna, you could for example call these real estate brokers www.skandiamaklarna.se/kontor/solna and have them set something up for you. There are surely others too, but you need to find those for yourself. In certain places, the flats are sort of off-the-shelf 1960's standard design so if you've seen one you've seen them all... as for the snow, there's nearly no snow yet, so don't let it stop you.

[languagelearner]

Um, one more thing, depending on your circumstances. People with parent's in the vicinity often get their parents to chop in and own a share of the flat when young people purchase for the first time. Sometimes you see the child own 10% and the parents 90%... or maybe 30% - 70% or 50% - 50% depending on the price of the flat, and the relative affluence of those parents (when it comes to the actual sharing/division of the mortgage). This kind of arrangement will need to be checked out with the board of that particular housing cooperative first, pre-approved, and also of course with the alleged affluent parents concerned... they often use the inflated value of their houses as counter-weight to the share of the mortgage, I think. Don't get me started on what I think of these outrageous house prices... it's like a hot air balloon, going upward, upward, thanks to the low interest rates. But with 50000 people moving in each year, the pressure of the housing market isn't going down any time soon. It's expected that Stockholm will grow to 2582000 people in the year 2024 holding one quarter of the country's population.

[languagelearner]

Sent a pm.

[badg3r]

Thanks a lot!!

[wilcafe]

I can suggest lots of locations but it depends on what your circumstances are - where work will be for both of you, will you have a car (SUPER important as you will be tied to public transport if you're without a car), what are you looking for (hipster, quiet suburbia, city "suburbia", etc.), what are some must have's - near parks, near shopping, near water, and other things like that.

You definitely get more bang for you buck with buying - the square footage will be more and the interior finishing will be much nicer (as you can see, rental market is insane so landlords have little motivation to upgrade their properties). Obviously buying is a big decision financially and also a commitment, so don't get lured in by the pretty pictures unless you're fairly certain that Stockholm will be your home for the next 2-3 years+. If it's less than that, consider private renting and taking the higher cost and potential hazard of having to move every year v. the risks of getting into a financial handcuff by buying - alot of the bubble/buying risk is probably not relevant if your outlook is 5-10 years as all prices (in the world) should be on the rise in that timeframe, but as with everything else, no one has a crystal ball.

[languagelearner]

I think you could benefit from getting a map over public transport. Not fun to commute in ways not easily supported by public transport, for example trying to commute diagonally over outer Stockholm from, say, southeast to northwest would be difficult. Every time you switch from train-bus-tube you lose 5-10 minutes. Look at it as a proper investment, in investment terms, if you can. Here's a link for your Swedish-speaking hubby, about second-hand rates often reaching usury levels: www.hemhyra.se/amnen/andrahandshyror

[YlvaMaria]

Hey! Sorry to be posting on a dead thread but I just joined Mumsnet so I wasn't around earlier. A heads up on a search engine for rental housing: kvalster.se/Stockholm They search through hemnet.se and blocket.se and all the other sites for conent. Free of charge of course. :)