Foreign buyers snapping up Swedish homes
Published: 14 Mar 11 14:57 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/32584/20110314/
Foreign ownership of Swedish summer houses, houses, land and farms has increased by 36 percent over the past five years, new statistics from the Swedish land registration authority (Lantmäteriet) show.
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"They want to have some peace and quiet and be close to the Swedish nature," said Christer Stjernfeldt at a property firm in Älmhult in southern Sweden that specialises in selling properties to foreigners.
The Danes are the group of people leading the list, owning 22,000 Swedish properties, followed by the Germans with 18,700, Norwegians 16,100, the USA 4,300 and Britain 3,700.
The greatest increase over the past five years is however accounted for by the Dutch, with an increase of 72 percent to 2,600.
"The Danes love old red houses with tiled and wood-fired stoves. The Germans buy more modern houses in the outskirts of a village."
Stjernfeldt's description corresponds with the statistics produced by Lantmäteriet on behalf of the TT news agency.
According to this report, foreign ownership has increased by 36 percent since 2006 to 79,000 properties owned by people living in other countries (which includes emigrated Swedes).
The list is dominated by summer houses, but also includes detached houses, farm properties and plots of land.
"The Dutch, for example, who live in Europe's most densely populated country, it is here that they can find the vast expanses," said Henrik Roos, a property analyst at Lantmäteriet.
Roos predicted that foreign ownership will continue to increase with the longer term strength of the Danish and Norwegian currencies cited as explanatory factors - even if the Swedish krona has rebounded somewhat over the past year.
He added that the range of properties on offer in Sweden are also a significant factor behind the increasing popularity - from farms to boat houses and tenement soldier's cottages, as well as the landscape.
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Wait until the Summer. Then Sweden rocks!
Summer in your own little stuga just lagom
yea, you are right, summer is nice in sweden, if you call that summer.
it last to the most two month, and you gotta suffer the rest time of the year.
with half of the money i pay for a property in sweden, i would have spent it on a town house close to the water in a quiet state in the united states, and i will have far better life than you can have in sweden.
I think you may be missing Rick's point. Yes, the property in the U.S. might be cheaper and perhaps preferable, IF you define quality of life by whether it's 'cheap', 'quiet', and near water, but it would still not be in Sweden and Sweden does rock in the summer.
Foreign purchase of homes usually means vacation houses or investment properties, so the owners may well skip the 'suffering' of Sweden's winters. Your point?
We can get good use of the summer house from Easter until September around 5 months of weekends and extended periods of up to a month around midsummer.
The whole point of a Swedish summer house is to get away from all the trappings of modern life that you have in your town house and get back to a simpler way of life. No traffic, no noise pollution just nature which as the swedes say is just Lagom.
I hope you are right. The winter, that's for sure, is miserable. It's March now, and the weather is still not at all lagom. Not close. But at least this is starting to be some sunlight. I am looking forward to the time when "outside" is not actively trying to kill me. Gotta learn to be happy about the small things.
if you are not looking for a nice quiet place close to the nature, anything else you looking for? what else makes sweden more rocky? maybe i miss a point here, but please teach me.
if you need a vacation spot, there is something called rent or even Homeaway.
i am also not sure if sweden could be a place for real estate investment, a smart investor would probably buy a house for 100,000 in a mid eastern states and sell it for 300,000 in a couple of years, how much percent do you make in that? or you can go to Dubai, Hong Kong or Shanghai, Hong Kong saw price jump 27% quarterly in 2010