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February 14, 2012
'Swedish housing costs among highest in EU'
Published: 3 Mar 10 14:10 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25324/20100303/
Swedish housing costs are among the highest across the EU countries. Only the Danes pay more for their homes, according to a new report from the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket).
- Economists reject 'housing bubble' report (26 Feb 10)
- State warns of housing boom and bust (23 Feb 10)
- 'Backward' rental market must be fixed: expert (10 Feb 10)
The countries with the lowest housing costs, relative to total expenditure, are Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta.
Sweden is also near the top with regards to total actual housing costs, in seventh place of the EU's 27 member states, spending an average of €4,300 ($5,900) per annum on housing.
The figure is particularly high considering that Swedes earn fairly modest net incomes in comparison with many other EU countries, and are far behind countries such as the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and neighbouring Denmark.
The figures showing that Swedes pay such a high price for their homes is explained by the researchers by the fact the standard is generally higher, homes are larger, and housing density is lower.
The average living space for a Swede amounts to 44.5 square metres, with only Luxembourgers and Danes enjoying more space to call home.
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Fin means anyhting from sweet to proper. When someone says, Du är så fin it's quite a compliment.
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And regarding income, do they count the income of the whole family?
Starting price was 550,000 kr the last bid was 820,000 kr. Do these suckers have any IQ when they did their bidding? Anyway don't blame nobody, but can sure say consumers are F%&¤ing dumb. How can anyboby imagine 24kvm in BAGAMOSSEN can sell for that price. So good luck to the ar%¤ hole that bought the place. See if they can sell at that same price in the future
I pay avgift usually 3 to 6 months in advance. I rarely get a good nights sleep due to four Alabanian lunatics illegally subletting the apartment below who do not goto sleep until 7am. My association is useless.
I am saving to buy a house.
I know several people who after purcashing an apartment are paying 4000 to 12000 Krona per month in Avgift. I can not figure out how they justify the costs. Heatnig and maintenance due not cost that amoun tin a block of apartments.
It comes across to me as a system designed to stop people rising up teh housing market and to keep them poor.
If it costs 100mkr to build the apartment building, the developer might sell all of the apartments at 60mkr then the housing association is stuck with a 40mkr loan, which is why the avgift is so high.
This is why the avgift on new apartments is usually quite high. Buy an apartment in a 100 year old building the the avgift is low because they carry no loans, but that of course pushes up the purchase price.
Important to add that this report was based on 2006 statistics - so before the huge boom years in many countries
I know about the loans. My apartment was built in 50. My avgift is 2500 krona. The way HSB operates the loan system is something that has raised my eyebrows. It looks more like a feeder system to justify the existance of HSB.
@ wb882
I don't get mortages. I save until have enough to purchase outright, otherwise I will not buy.
As for those who complain about high avgift - is your avgift including heating? That and the loans for the construction company would explain a lot. Also, construction standards in Sweden are way higher than in UK, closer to what you can see in Germany.
ALL the money you pay for Avgift goes to the association that manages your building. It gets used to pay down the loans (and interest) that were taken to build your house in the first place, as well as heating and other running expenses.
When you buy a bostadsrättlägenhet (the apartments which have a Avgift), you are actually purchasing a share in this association. So ALL the profit made on your Avgift (if any) goes back to yourself, in the form of capital in this association which should result on a higher price of your house.
Bottom line, none of the money which you pay in Avgift gets skimmed by any third parties, unless your building is very mismanaged (and then you can vote to fire whoever is managing it).
Compare this situation with that of our Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, apartment of similar size in which the avgift is about 4,200 kr./mo. which doesn't include a loan payment, hot water, or air conditioning (Heating? What's that? :-) And our Honolulu apartment avgift increases almost every year :-(
So Sweden's apartment costs don't seem high at all to us.
Housing in Sweden is amongst the cheapest in Europe.
Is this survey just based on flats in the Gamla Stan?
If you hold this apartment for a long time, the Avgift will probably come down at some point, or at least rise slower than inflation (as the debt of the association goes down, requiring lower payments from members). This will make your house's value higher.
Germany has much higher housing costs and much lower value-for-money. In Sweden our family is able to afford a tenant-owned (bostadsrätt) duplex house with a nice backyard. In Germany, we could never afford a house close to a city (the fact that houses close to the city are so rare doesn't help things), we'd have to settle for an apartment.
realy nice flat about 90m2 with nice view etc... Sweden 5000:- per month, UK shity little room in flat share with a bunch of crack heads 3000:- per week. Am I missing something or are the Swedes trying to put people off moving to Sweden?????