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Spring fever hits hot Swedish housing market

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Spring fever hits hot Swedish housing market
Houses in Stockholm suburb Enskede. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/SCANPIX

Housing prices are once again rising in Sweden, with more and more homes being put up for sale, according to fresh statistics.

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Experts suggested last month that Sweden's hot housing market could be cooling down after the cost of both apartments and houses remained steady over the winter months.

But new figures by Svensk Mäklarstatistik – the Swedish agency which measures sales by estate agent – indicated on Monday that property prices are once again on the rise, as more and more Swedish house hunters line up to look for a new home for spring.

"After a few months of stagnation, prices are starting to move upwards again. It's particularly evident for houses, with an increase of two percent in greater Stockholm and greater Gothenburg in the past month," said Per-Arne Sandegren, an analyst at the agency.

According to the statistics the cost of houses has gone up by one percent on average across the country in the past month. Apartment prices have remained steady overall, but have risen by two percent in Gothenburg and one percent in Stockholm and Malmö.

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More and more keys are also changing hands, said Svensk Mäklarstatistik, with 15 percent more houses and 19 percent more apartments up for sale in February than the same month last year -- proof of the hotter-than-ever housing market, said Sandegren.

"The increased number of sales is a trend which has been growing in the past few months."

The cost of buying an apartment or house rocketed in Sweden in 2015 with February prices showing an average jump of 14 percent for apartments and 10 percent for houses in the past 12 months. 

Many prospective house buyers therefore breathed a sigh of relief after the increase appeared to stall in November-January. However, on Monday property firms said that sales typically dip around the winter months and added that Swedes could expect prices to continue to rise in 2016.

"This is not a unique situation and looking at the same period last year the development was very similar and if it continues to follow last year's trend we will be seeing price increases in the future too," Tanja Ilic, CEO of realtors Svensk Fastighetsförmedling, told the TT newswire.

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