'The market isn’t completely dead': Swedish house prices rise slightly in January
House prices increased by 1.8 percent across Sweden last month, according to new statistics from SBAB bank and Booli property site. However, this doesn’t mean that the property crisis is over, warned Robert Boije, senior economist at SBAB.
Boije said, however, that it was too early to say whether this was a trend, as the property market usually sees a boost in January anyway.
“In January we have a lot of viewings after the market has usually been dead in December. So, prices rose in January, but when seasonal effects are removed, they actually dropped.”
“Therefore, it’s too early to say that this is a turning point in the market, but if prices had kept dropping in January, it would have been even gloomier. This shows that the market isn’t completely dead,” he told TT newswire.
According to Boije, the deciding factors for house prices throughout the spring are the central bank's decision on whether to further hike interest rates or not, as well as energy prices.
"We think that property prices could fall as we enter spring, but when we've reached the interest rate peak, concerns in households about what's happening to the economy should lessen."
"If interest rates don't increase much more than what the central bank has said, I think we will see prices stabilising," he added.
Apartment prices rose the most in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg in January, with house prices seeing the greatest increase in central Sweden. The greater Gothenburg area went against the trend, with falling house prices.
"What we're seeing is that over the whole year, house prices have fallen much further than apartment prices. There are a few indications that this is to do with concerns about energy prices where houses are concerned," Boije said.
Over the last 12 months, house prices have dropped by 15 percent and apartment prices by 9 percent, according to Booli and SBAB.
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