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BLOCKET

Swedes rush to sell unwanted Christmas gifts

As one of the busiest retail days of the year kicks off, one in every three Swedes will exchange their Christmas gifts this year, according to a survey. Many are also selling their unwanted presents online.

Published: 26 December 2009 09:07 CET

Knick knacks, concert tickets and mobile phones didn’t seem to be among the items on Swedes’ Christmas wish lists this year. Just hours after Santa had made his rounds, scores of unwanted items had already been put up for sale online.

Swedes seemed to be most dissatisfied with knick knacks, household items, concert tickets, litterature and mp3 players, which were the fastest growing categories on online auction site Tradera on Christmas Day. Around 8,000 products had been put up for sale.

Unhappy gift recipients had also put up their unwanted items, including mobile phones, on Blocket. “Got this as a Christmas present, now I’m selling it at a good price!” wrote one seller about her new iPhone.

Mobile phones were nevertheless the most popular Christmas present among home electronics, according to a summary by Netonnet, an online gadget retailer. The second most popular sellers were digital photo frames.

It remains to be seen how many of them will remain in the hands of their new owners. Every third Swede usually exchanges some of their Christmas presents, according to a survey done by Tradera.

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BLOCKET

Stockholm rents rise 20 percent in one year

The cost of subletting an apartment in the Swedish capital continues to rise quickly, despite a growing supply, with the average price 20 percent higher now than it was at the same time last year.

Published: 7 October 2013 07:57 CEST
Stockholm rents rise 20 percent in one year
Swedish rental prices on the rise

Stockholm prices have increased the most nationwide, according to new statistics courtesy of Swedish buy-sell site Blocket.

In the Swedish capital, an average one-room apartment will set a tenant back 6,043 kronor ($941) each month. Gothenburg landlords charge an average 4,375 kronor, with flats in Malmö in the south coming in at 4,265 on average.

Despite the housing shortage across the country, however, the supply has increased since 2012. There are 11 percent more flats advertised on Blocket now than at the same time last year.

There have been a total of 47,500 apartments advertised, although a number of these are likely to be false ads.

Related story: How to avoid fraud in the Stockholm house-hunt

In Stockholm, there have been 8,000 ads placed for one-room apartments this year.

“We believe that the development will continue for the rest of the year, but will then drop off a little,” Robin Suwe, spokesman at Blocket, told the TT news agency.

“We don’t yet see any signs that subletting apartments should be harder because of the higher price brackets. More and more apartments are being rented out thanks to the increased supply,” he added.

Prices have also increased due to a new law, which came into effect on February 1st, which gives apartment owners more flexibility in setting rents for sublets that are more in line with the actual costs of ownership.

TT/The Local/og

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