It can be hard to get student accommodation in Sweden, although many fee-paying international students are given a guarantee over lodgings.
A study of young people carried out by the Ungdomsbarometern, an opinion research organisation focused on young people, found that as many as one in four students in Sweden opted not to study at their first choice of university simply because they could not find reasonably priced accommodation.
A third of those from economically deprived backgrounds, meanwhile, said they had decided not to study in a specific city because they could not afford the cost of housing.
"We're seeing a real effect on on the possibility and the freedom students have to pick the city where they want to study," Rasmus Lindstedt, chair of the Swedish National Union of Students, told the Local.
"It's a problem which is spread over the entirety of Sweden, from Malmö and Lund in the south to Kiruna and Luleå in the north. Over 70 percent of students actually live in cities are marked by our report as being difficult to get a student housing in within the first semester."
How does the problem compare to previous years?
According to a survey sent out to member organisations by Studentbostadsföretagen, which represents companies providing student accommodation, 37 percent of Sweden's student housing providers believe that students are near certain to be offered student housing when they start in September, and a further 34 percent believe that it is possible to get housing, even if supply is limited.
This, they said, was an improvement on previous years, with new student housing blocks opening in several Swedish cities.
Where are the most difficult cities to find student accommodation?
The Swedish National Union of Students published a report at the end of last August, which found that none of the big university cities: Uppsala, Lund, Stockholm, or Malmö could offer students accommodation in the autumn term, with student housing also unavailable in Halmstad, Kiruna, Skövde, Umeå and Visby.
Of the bigger university cities, Luleå and Örebro were the only ones able to offer students accommodation in the autumn.
However, the more recent Studentbostadsföretagen survey was more upbeat, with the companies claiming the situation had improved in Stockholm, Linköping, Umeå and Lund, even though it was still very difficult in Gothenburg and Uppsala.
"Right now, the queue time for a single room with a shared kitchen is 1 to 1.5 years and for an apartment from 2 years depending on the location in the city," Anna Christensson, customer and marketing manager at SGS Student Housing in Gothenburg, admitted the survey.
Jenny Wikström, property manager at Uppsalahem Studentstaden in Uppsala said that the situation was "a little tough" in 2024 because 300 rooms were currently being renovated.
But in Stockholm, improvements have been made.
Ida Södersten, head of residential rental at Svenska Bostäder in Stockholm, said that the company's new Campus Albano development was now finished, giving it access to 1,000 new student apartments.
"Most are rented out, but there are some available from time to time," she said. "During the past year, we have completed the construction of two new student properties, one in Östberga and one in Hornstull. So compared to last year, we have more student apartments this year. There are good chances of getting student housing with us."
Stockholms Studentbostäder, another housing company which was founded by Stockholm's student unions, has built 700 new student flats since 2020, with new buildings at Lappkärrsberget, near Stockholm University, and Björkhagen. In a press release issued last month, it said it was renting out 1,400 student homes in June, July and August, although it conceded that the average queue time remained 18 months.
Henrik Krantz, CEO of AF Bostäder in Lund, said that the situation in the city was "stable".
"Through AF Bostäder, nations, Bopoolen and others, there is a varied offer within Lund with convenient distance to Lund University," he said. "AF Bostäder also applies first-year priority, which means that students who live outside Skåne go first in the queue. The opportunity for new students to get an apartment with AF Bostäder for the start of the semester is therefore extra good."
Where can you find student housing?
The system differs depending on the city.
Housing guarantee
If you are an international student from outside the European Union paying full fees, you will normally be offered a housing guarantee. To take advantage of this see the guide on the website of Uppsala University here and Lund University here.
To be eligible, you typically need to have applied for accommodation at the same time as applying for your course, and will need to pay your fees before being offered a place to stay.
Stockholm University does not offer a housing guarantee.
At Gothenburg University, exchange students within the Erasmus and Linnaeus Palme programs, and exchange students that come as part of a bilateral agreement, are eligible for so-called 'Ugot accommodation'. The University will tell you how to apply once you are accepted.
The nations
Uppsala and Lund both have a tradition of student 'nations' or nationer, student societies that offer accommodation as well as being the centre of much of university social life.
There are 13 nations at each of the two universities. You can find a list of Lund's nations here and Uppsala's here, together with links to their websites, where you can apply for accommodation.
Standard student housing queues
An alternative is to apply directly to one of the student housing companies in the city where you want to study.
In Gothenburg you apply to SGS Studentbostäder a specialist student queue for student apartments.
In Stockholm, you use the city's official rental portal, Bostadsförmedlingen, ticking "student" when joining the queue, and you can do the same in Uppsalabostadsförmedlingen.
In Lund, you can use two portals, the Bopoolen portal and AF Bostäder, both of which offer rental apartments to Lund University students. As mentioned above, AF Bostäder offers discounts for freshers. In Uppsala, you can also apply to a special student queue here,
For foreign students, this approach is quite unlikely to get you a flat in your first year, however, as the queues are often well over a year long (which is all the more reason to put yourself down on the list if you'll be staying for several years).
This type of student housing, particularly the newly built apartments in Stockholm, can also sometimes be quite expensive, with Lindstedt saying he'd heard of some students asked to pay as much as 7,000 kronor a month.
"Our view is that that it should be only 30 percent of your student allowance or stipend, but that's not what we're seeing, it's getting ever higher," he said.
Subletting
Failing that, students can do what other newcomers to Sweden have to do and look around for a rental apartment. As queues for first-hand rentals in Sweden's big cities can often stretch out to a decade, this more often than not means a sublet, sometimes of dubious legality. You can read about that here.
Good luck in your search! Let us know if you have any tips for our readers who might be searching for accommodation.
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