Finding an apartment can be a nightmare in major Swedish cities, where short-term second hand contracts are the norm unless you've been on a waiting list for years. Flat sharing is also rare – half of Swedish households are inhabited by just one person – the highest proportion in Europe.

 

Aware of the tricky rental market and her own singledom, Alicia Hansson, 19, took an unusual approach when posting an advert on a flat-hunting Facebook group page in Gothenburg last week.

 

Currently preparing to return to Sweden after working as an Au Pair in Spain, she wrote: "Are you good looking as hell, charming and know how to put down the toilet seat after you?"

 

The advert continued: "Searching high and low for a prospective room mate/partner to move in with some time after the summer. Love is absolutely no obligation!"

 

She wrote that she would be happy to cook, clean and keep track of bills, while her new co-habitor would have to "more or less just exist".

 

Within days she had well over 1,000 responses to the advert, with some men even sending her romantic poems or snaps of their bare chests.

 

 

 

"From past experience, I can say that the combination of a handsome, charming man who folds down the toilet seat is not particularly common. So you could call my advert a mixture of humour and a cry for help searching for that non-existant, ideal man," Hansson told the Gothenburg Post, which broke the story on Monday.

 

Speaking to The Local, she added: "My first intention was just to find an apartment for me to rent after the summer…But instead of erasing my vision of having someone lying on the other side of the bed I decided…I might as well spice up the criteria a little while I'm at it!"

 

"In my world, love is what creates a home," she said.

 

But the post has attracted some criticism, with commenters on social media accusing her of flaunting her own looks and bashing Sweden's gender-equal ideals.

 

"White trash," one post below Metro's version of the story simply said. 

 

Others appeared baffled by the idea: "Is this some kind of social experiment?" wrote Jonas Bengtsson, another member of the same apartment rental group on Facebook.

 

But others praised the teenager for her approach.

 

"Hahahaha, best advert on here," posted Gillis Tjenare Mannen Wiktorsson, while Siya Mhlwatika wrote in English "hilarious lady this!".

 

The Au Pair told The Local that she was genuinely interested in meeting people who had contacted her about her advert, suggesting that the men who had reached out to her might be "more serious" about finding a partner than those using dating apps such as Tinder and Badoo.

 

"I have found very many funny and charming people, but it's a little hard to have a coffee with them when I am still in Spain," she laughed.

 

Responding to complaints that she had both exploited her sexuality and objectified men, she said: "Today people are so busy trying to prove a point about how the world really is that they forget it’s important to have fun too."

 

However she added that she did know how to "make a man feel king" by seducing him with her eyes.

 

Room seekers have previously been known to find love from looking for apartments online. In the UK, Helen and John Webster made national headlines when they got married after meeting via British rental site SpareRoom.