7 steps to buying your own home in Sweden

Consider waking up one summer morning looking at a green landscape from your bedroom window, or the same landscape covered in white dust in the winter. This is what you can wake up to in central Scandinavian Sweden. How do I get this amazing view? By following these seven steps, you are absolutely on your way.

• Financing: Whether you’re a first-time home buyer or someone re-entering the housing market, you must pay for your home when you move. How you finance it is your decision, with your own money or through a mortgage. Whichever option you find best, you will need at least 15% of the purchase amount in cash, as a down payment when you sign the contract. If you decide to take a mortgage, you will have to understand that Swedish banks now only accept a maximum of 75% of the purchase amount as collateral loan with the house as collateral. Before you can get a loan, you need prior approval from the bank.
• Rental: You can decide to live in the country or in the city; the opportunities are almost endless. Keep in mind that the prices in the cities are much higher and there are more condos than houses there.
• Find a house: There are some real estate agents nationwide; You can also find some local real estate agents depending on the location. Most real estate agents have their own website where they list available houses and a list price. They can also advertise their ads on collective sites, which list all the ads from different real estate agents and sort them by location. These sites offer you a good chance of finding your dream home in Sweden.
• Take a look at the house: When you have found a home; or some houses in your budget range, on one of the web pages mentioned above you will be able to see the house or houses. By law, another real estate agent cannot represent anyone in buying a home, even if you hire an attorney to represent you if you are unable to attend yourself. Being unfamiliar with the Swedish property market, I would recommend that you take the opportunity to hire your own lawyer who has a good insight into the Swedish property market.
• Offers: Due to the high demand for houses, there is the possibility that you will have competition to get the house of your dreams. Therefore, before starting the bidding process, you should consider that the purchase amount may increase up to 25% of the listing price. Therefore, although you are the one with the highest bid, it is the seller who decides who he wants to sell to. Therefore, the highest bid does not automatically become a winning bid.
• Signing the contract: Once the tender is finished and if the seller has chosen it, it is time to sign the contract. But before signing the contract, I would recommend that you get a certified home inspection, because you, as a buyer, have a certain amount of inspection duty to follow; If you don’t want any surprises later, ask your attorney or real estate agent. agent for a recommended inspector. You are signing the contract together with an educated impartial real estate agent, but I recommend that you have your attorney with you at this time. At this point, you will need to pay a deposit on the house and, under the contract, receive notice that you will be able to move into your dream home on a certain date.
• Moving: The date has come and now you can move into the house of your dreams. Now is when you must pay the rest of the purchase sum and therefore have access to the house. According to Swedish law, you must also apply for legal ratification of your property within three months. The cost of this legal ratification is today 1.5% of the purchase amount plus an administrative cost.

Buying your own home is one of the most important purchases you can make in your life, and it is important that you are well prepared. Starting with a budget will go a long way. In my opinion, you should take these costs into account in the calculation; Deposit sum (15%), attorney cost, higher purchase amount due to bidding (+ 25%), legal ratification cost (+ 1.5%), other bank and moving costs. Make sure you have pre-approval from the bank if you want to finance your purchase with a mortgage before you start budgeting.