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Swedish beach plot for sale for just one krona

Property prices may be on the rise, but a municipality in northern Sweden is still struggling to sell more than a dozen plots up for sale – despite bringing the price down to a measly krona ($0.12)

Published: 15 September 2016 13:00 CEST

Swedish beach plot for sale for just one krona

One of many other lakes in the area. Photo: Sarawi/Wikimedia

For many people getting to build your own home by the lake in calm and picturesque northern Sweden may be a dream come true. And at just one krona for the land it certainly seems like a bargain.

But not a single person has tried to snap up the 15 plots made available by Norsjö municipality, some of them situated right by the lake. The catch, because there's always a catch, is that whoever takes them up on the offer is obligated to also build a house within two years.

“To a family it probably makes a difference if you have your own capital or are able to get a loan. In rural areas the finished house is not worth as much as it costs to build it,” council officer Elin Andersson told the SVT broadcaster.

The local authority even suspects that the low price may have discouraged potential buyers.

“It could give a bad impression that we're giving the plots away. We want to find other ways of stimulating construction,” said Andersson, adding that the council will now attempt to find another use for the land.

Rural areas have been struggling for years with Sweden's fast rate of urbanization.

As The Local reported on Thursday, a new report by the national job agency predicts that nearly a third of the working age population will have left their rural homes by 2030 to move to the cities for work.

Just over 4,100 people lived in Norsjö municipality in 2015, according to Statistics Sweden, down from 4,689 at the start of the millennium. Located some 70 kilometres west of Skellefteå, anyone who does move here will have plenty of recreation opportunities, including walking and Nordic skiing. The tourism office describes the municipality as “calm, safe and pleasant”.

If anyone is interested, there is more information available here (in Swedish).

READ ALSO: Swede turns one-krona church into dream home

INTERVIEW: 'Most foreigners in Sweden don't know they can get back excess rent'

More and more of the people asking the Swedish Tenants’ Association, Hyresgästföreningen in Swedish, for help with excess rent are foreigners, Sjölin told The Local in an interview.

“The problem is that if you’re coming from another country, and you’re subletting an apartment, you’re probably not familiar with the rules in Sweden, because in other countries, it might be okay to overcharge your tenants.”

He said that clients from India in particular seeking help from the association were now “very common”.

“Many people come here to work as engineers in the IT sector and then have to rent somewhere,” he said, adding that as a group Indians appeared to be “very aware of their rights.”

Sweden’s rental sector is heavily regulated, with first hand contracts negotiated between landlords and the Tenants’ Association, and the rent that can be charged for second-hand contracts limited to only a small fraction above what the first-hand renter pays.

“You’re not allowed to make any profit subletting an apartment in Sweden,” Sjölin explains. “You can only charge the subletting tenant the same rent as you [the first-hand tenant] are paying to your landlord, and then you can add the costs for internet and electricity, and perhaps a parking lot, if that is included.”

Tenants’ Association lawyer Roland Sjölin. Photo: supplied.

You can also add a påslag or “markup”, if you are renting out the apartment fully furnished, but this cannot exceed more than 15 percent of the rent.

That doesn’t mean that most landlords follow the law. The competition for rental apartments, especially in Stockholm, is so intense, that unscrupulous sublet landlords often try to get away with charging well over the legal amount, charging what is known in Sweden as ockerhyra, or “excess rent” and hoping that their tenants are too desperate to complain.

What many foreigners do not realise is that even after the rental period is over, they can still get back any excess rent they have paid by applying to the Rental Board or Hyresnämnden, which functions like a court judging rental disputes.

“If you have the evidence then it’s fairly easy,” Sjölin said. “I get a new case every second week on repayment of unfair rent, and I think that I win most of them.”

“Nowadays, you can get paid back excess rent up to 24 months back in time, so people tend to get more money,” he added. “In some cases, they can get 200,000 kronor. In other cases, perhaps it’s only 30,000 kronor or 60,000 kronor. It depends on how long you have rented the apartment, and how excessive the rent you’ve been paying has been.”

The first step is to establish what would have been a fair rent, either by asking your landlord what they themselves pay directly or by checking with the Tenants’ Association.

“Because we negotiate most rents in Sweden, we normally know what the firsthand rent is,” Sjölin explained.

Then you need to collect together your evidence.

“It’s a good thing to have a written contract and also papers from your bank showing that you paid rent every month, and perhaps photographs of the apartment, so the rental board can get an idea of the apartment you were renting and what would be a fair rent, and also the termination for the contract so you can show the court how long you’ve been living in the apartment.”

But Sjölin underlined that since Sweden has free burden of evidence, none of this is essential.

“Even if you’ve been paying in cash, if you have witnesses who can testify what you were paying each month, you still have a chance of getting your money back. It’s a bit more tricky, but I’ve won two cases like that this year.”

People in Sweden, he explained, tend to wait until the rental period is over before seeking to get paid back excess rent rather than challenging their landlord while they are still living in the apartment.

“You don’t have any legal protection for your home for the first two years, so if you bring the matter up with the person you’re renting the apartment from you risk losing your contract and having to move out, so most people wait until they’re supposed to move anyway,” he said.

If you apply to the rental board for a refund close to the day you move out, you can then make your landlord pay back all excess rent paid in the 24 months leading up to the date you contacted the rental board.

If you are a member of the Tenants’ Association, you can contact them and ask for help with your application, but there are also specialist companies, like Orimlig Hyra AB who will buy your case off you and give you a refund within 48 hours, saving you a long wait in exchange for a cut of the money reclaimed.

Sjölin said that the rental board normally took about 8 months to come to a judgement, but that if the person with the first hand contract appeals, that could extend the waiting time by between six months and a year.

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