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This is how much it costs to rent an apartment in Sweden

The cost of renting a sublet apartment has soared in the past year, according to fresh statistics.

Published: 12 October 2016 07:36 CEST
Updated: 12 October 2016 08:40 CEST
This is how much it costs to rent an apartment in Sweden
Sweden's rental market can be tricky to navigate for foreigners. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

In the third quarter of 2016, the average price of Stockholm apartments advertised on rental site Blocket jumped by 7.4 percent compared to the same period last year.

A one-room apartment in the capital today costs on average 7,700 kronor ($874) a month to sublet and a two-room apartment 12,500 kronor, according to statistics compiled by tenants' magazine Hem&Hyra.

In Gothenburg, second-hand leases for apartments are available for on average 7,295 kronor, a 13.3 percent rise on 2015. A sublet in Malmö is 7,069 kronor, up by 9.3 percent.

In Jönköping, about 300 kilometres south-west of Stockholm, the monthly rental price for a sublet is 6,198 kronor. But the town saw the biggest rise of all the cities Hem&Hyra examined in the report, with the average price up by 15.8 percent in July-September compared to the same period last year.

Let The Local help you find an apartment in Sweden.

Check out our property rental section

Why have prices gone up by so much?

Well, in theory, the Swedish rental market is tightly controlled, with companies banned from charging tenants above a certain level in a move designed to stop young people and low earners being driven away from urban centres.

However, few homes covered by these rules have been built in the past years and there simply aren't enough apartments with rent caps to go around, which pushes up the price of second-hand leases.

In theory, landlords should not charge tenants more than 15 percent extra compared with their own rent, but in practice many tenants fear that insisting on their rights will cost them their elusive contract.

Simon Safari, the chairman of the Swedish Union of Tenants, told The Local last year that it is not uncommon for foreigners to end up paying double the appropriate price for apartments, especially in the Swedish capital.

“Foreigners are most at risk because they don't always know the rules and the people advertising their homes are aware of this,” he told The Local.

GUIDE: How to navigate Sweden's crazy rental market

One to five-room apartments advertised on Blocket in July-September 2016

Stockholm: 10,494 kronor (7.4 percent)
Gothenburg: 7,295 kronor (13.3 percent)
Malmö: 7,069 kronor (9.3 percent)
Uppsala: 6,943 kronor (8.3 percent)
Helsingborg: 6,782 kronor (-3.6 percent)

Read the full list here.

Let The Local help you find an apartment in Sweden.

Check out our property rental section

For members

PROPERTY

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

In Sweden, people subletting apartments are not allowed to charge more in rent than they themselves pay. But foreign subtenants don't always know this. We asked Roland Sjölin, lawyer at the Swedish Tenants' Association, about how to get back excess rent.

Published: 18 April 2024 15:19 CEST
Updated: 21 April 2024 08:12 CEST
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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