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

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
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

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

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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.

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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

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