A reason that the Bostadsrättsförening (BRF) don't like that people sublet their apartments too much is because they want the people living there to care about the area and the association. Both in terms of keeping the outside areas clean, tidy and calm (and not throw snus or cigarettes out from the window and down on the pavement below) since that makes the area nicer to live in, but also because everyone is financially linked to the association. Should the area start to look bad, or if people don't maintain the property because "it's not mine anyway, why should I invest time and money to keep things nice?" then the value of the property can fall and bring the value of apartments around down with it. For many Swedes their home is the biggest investment they will ever make, in terms of financial value of property, and they might even have loans with their property as collateral to buy a car or something similar. If the value of the property goes down then the Banks will not loan as much money or even tell the person to start repaying because now the collateral is worth less than their current loan. As Stefan mentions, the monthly fee goes to maintaining the property and pay for gardening, repairs, cleaning, various ventillation inspections, renovations, etc. Should people start to litter more then the price for cleaning will go up and that money must come from somewhere which means they might have to increase the monthly fees. Also be suspicious about BRFs with a low monthly fee. It could be perfectly fine when looking at other factors, but a low fee is used to make the apartments seem appealing to buyers which increases the value of the property should they want to sell. On the flipside, once there is need for an extensive renovation (such as "Stambyte" when they replace all the water- and sewage pipes in the entire building) the coffers could be very low or empty and suddenly the monthly fee will skyrocket. An adjacent BRF had to increase their fees by 30% in one go to be able to get a loan to pay for the renovation.. Similarly now with increased interest rates and all prices in gneeral going up, in some rare cases the associations have had to increase the monthly fees by about 100% just to cover interest!

Fixed interest in Sweden is between 1-10 years. We have 8 years on our house.

Financial planning is like navigation. If you know where you are and where you want to go, navigation isn't such a great problem. It's when you don't know the two points that it's difficult

Meanwhile, the US have endless number of homes that just stand empty and unused while there are over half a million people that are homeless, all for the sake of the stock market.

Housing co-ops are common in NYC.

About owning a flat or owning a stake in a housing association. Since 2009 there is a type where you actually own the flat called "ägarlägenhet". Before that I till it want possible to own property in the vertical space on Sweden but they got it updated and it would similar to "radhus" (seeing different translations such as townhouse, row house, terraced house). So when you actually own the flat you can do as you please with renovation and renting it out. The common parts that still needs collaboration are done in a compulsory community association (? Samfällighetsförening), like if you on the rural area have a road passing by that everyone needs to be part of. The key part is that they association doesn't own the property like a home association does. I read that only new buildings can become directly owned flats ("ägarlägenheter") or there hasn't been any dwelling the last 8 years. Like if a commercial building is converted to flats it can be this. So the existing home associations and the way it works will stay in place.

Hi. Love your channel. You might check your refrigerator . Red lamp blinks.😊

This English explanation was extremely helpful to me as a fellow American living here. Smart decision to rent!

same in Norway, but sometimes you have the same payments and I think , it's longer than 3years. It's called 'faste renter' if you want them, oh must ask the bank.

A very good video! You really caught the most important of the Swedish home market and types of living.

An important fact regarding association is that renovation can be done with a majority descision. In some countries where you own an apartment renovation requires 100% owners to accept which leads to buildings deteriorating because a few owners block any extra costs. There can also be the case where they arent even able to reach some owners.

In Sweden, you can get an atmint probe with a 10-year binding period. For me, it was 4.9% when I bought the house and thought it wouldn't get any lower. But I was completely wrong, the interest rate just dropped. But now after twelve years it is soon back at that level.

4:47 actually, most banks offer 3 months to 10 years duration on mortgages in Sweden. The thing that makes longer duration less viable in Sweden is that if you want refinance the mortgage before the term ends, you need to compensate the bank for the lost expected income from the interest rate - if you refinance with a lower rate (somewhat simplified).

Great to see you again on KZfaq!

Very interesting and surprising information. I especially appreciate the name of a website for viewing properties.

One other thing that might be pertinent regarding buying homes in Sweden is that you have to also pay “pantbrev” & “lagfart” on most houses. This is around 3,5% if no previous pantbrev is registered on the home. And this has to be paid by you. You are not allowed to add this to your finance.

If you want a house consider contacting a prefabhouse manufacturing company and having a house built for you. You won't need to put down the 15%. You will likely get a lower interest rate. It is cheaper often than buying an existing house. The whole process takes only a few months and you get a new house. I considered doing this when I lived in Gothenburg, but then I moved out to the country side instead. You won't be able to live in the centre of Stockholm though.

mycket intressant, fler videos nu:)

As a board memeber of a housing association, if the number of people rent out their apartments long term - it can decrease the tenants engagement in the association itself. However there are something called "Likhetsprincipen" or equality principle, menaing that if they approve a person long term, they have to approve the rest applying for the same if the conditions are equal. Valid reasons (Legally or by praxis) are: - Doing military Service, - Serving a prison sentence - Trying out living with a partner - Working or studying at another city/country Some associations have approved renting out 6-12 months if the market is bad atm(meaning that its difficult to sell the apartment).

In a nut shell that is basicly same here in Finland. I have bankloan that has solid payment for every month, but there is different variations for the loaning system and when you make the deal with yor bank it depends what is the interest rates at the time what kind of loan is the best option. If the rate is very low, it is best for you to take loan for that interest for whole loan time. If the interest is high then it might be better to take loan where the interest rate changes in real time for expecting those interest rates possibly are going to get down and it changes monthly. Then there is something from the middle (i have this one) where the loan interest is checked every three month period. So if you take the first one you know exactly when you have the last payment, but in these two other options the loan live with the interest rates so if the rates gets lower, that loaning time mighst end up sooner, but if inerests goes and stays up long periods it takes more time to pay that whole mortage out. Then there is more risky loan where you shorter every month with same amount mortage plus you pay te interest that changes, so you might get into trouble if the interests goes up very much and the monthly payments goes up as well. What comes for the interest itself it is always banks own prime interest prosentage and Euribor prosentage. Banks prime is solid what it ever is when you are taking the loan and Euribor is the one that changes so even when interest rates rises the banks prime will remain the same.

I have bought property in the USA and what i found interesting is the whole credit score thing and the fact (in my case) the notary what a separate instance and not as in sweden connected to the bank

Smart thing renting in this economy. I locked down my loan for four years and I’m dreading the upcoming re-negotiation for the following four years.

There is one called "Good brokerage practice" and reads as follow; The broker must be a so-called impartial intermediary. This means that the broker must look after the interests of both the seller and the buyer. But there is an exception and that applies to the price of the home. As regards the price, the broker must, despite the requirement of impartiality, try to get the highest possible price for the home if the assignment comes from the seller.

Wow, the market is another place in Sweden. Are you now a home owner?

Sounds to me like 'Borettslag' in Norway, but in Norway you own your apartment, but not the building/outer wall you live inn, therefore the mortgage (lån) of the building is decided into numbers of residences it has. But in Norway you have the other consept , too. It calls 'selfeie'. Maybe someone wants to move to Norway. Sorry, couldn't resist😄😊

If you rent long term, the owner can't end the contract. The renter is protected by law to stay as long as they follow the rules in the contract. This is the reason that they don't want owners to rent out long term.

one thing I'm wondering is, lets say you buy a property whit you're significant other whit a 30 year fixed interest loan. what happens if you split-up after lets say 5 years, and you need 2 sell you're property? Do you still need 2 pay the 25 years off interest 2 the bank ? Think that's the issue whit the Swedish system, nobody wants a long loan hear because you will have 2 pay The interest difference compensation.

Having owned both a house and apartment in the US and here in Sweden I just want to add that the buyser (if memmory serves me right) end up paying for 2 real estate agents in the US instead of one here. Regarding locking in interest rates you can most commonly lock it in on 3 monhts, 1,3,5,8 or 10 years. Also one major difference is that if your morgage is less than 50% of the property value you do not have to pay an ammortization here in sweden, unless you wish to do so.

Yeah, trusting af

Note that there is a major difference between buying an aparment and a house. When buying a house you have an extensive responsibility to inspect the property. ANY faults that could have been found during an inspection of the property but found after signing the contract is on you and at your expense to fix (basically, there are allowances for hidden defects - but those are really rare).

The BRF option is NOT unique to Sweden. It exists in the whole of Scandinavia, and also in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Quebec, Canada. Here in Norway, it's basically the only affordable housing that's remotely central. Except in Oslo, where nothing is affordable. 🙄

I can think of Stockholm being the worst place in Sweden to buy a home in... I live in a small town in Skåne. Much easier to find a good place, not that expensive and a good size. Now, we are a family, 2 adults and 2 teenagers. We live in a so called "radhus". It's also easy to walk or take the bus to wherever you wanna go. I don't mind being a tourist in Stockholm, but I wouldn't consider moving there.

I'm curious as of how long the loan terms in general are, not just the fixed rate. I've read online that it can be 50 years sometimes which just sounds unbelievable to me.

Hello from the north. As a foreigner who bought a house (vila) in the North of Sweden, my process looked completely different than what you describe, especially different when we were not residents of Sweden yet and we going of the rule that we are EU citizens and have the right to buy a property anywhere in EU. Maybe I should do a video about that. 🤔

Norway and Denmark have same association

👍👍

You forgot to mention that you get punished in the USA for putting less than 20% down. They charge you a monthly PMI which adds hundreds of dollars to your mortgage

Lita inte för mycket på vad mäklaren säger när du väl köper. Om du kan kontrollera mäklarens olika påståenden så gör det!!!

No no in Finland 🇫🇮 They have like this 2

Swedish housemarket is so broken. I think they have regulated it way too much

Not only in Sweden, house associations are standard in Finland. Not suprised that Swedes don't know that.

Don't trust Swedish real estate agents when selling property. They mostly care about selling as fast as possible so they earn money more quickly. Sometimes it is better to not sell and put the house/apartment on the market at a later date.

You'll lose a lot of money from renting, even having a loan on a Bostadsrätt usually makes less bills than renting and in the end of the day you'll also own the right aswell. Same thing with houses, and were you for example buying a house cash, you can end up with less moneys on bills than renting a one bedroom apartment of say 40ish square meters. Now ofc Stockholm has ridicolous prices, it's a world of its own and some people just feel like they just have to live there among the snobs. Why is really beyond me since there's so many places that are nicer and at a tenth of the price. For me, I live in a bostadsrätt, and my bills are slightly less than half of what a renter would pay for a similar size apart and I can choose how my apartment is decked out. I also have a say when it comes to what's gonna be done to the house and the yard. If I were to sell today I'd basicly lived here for free for 50 years eventho I've only lived in this apartment for 12 years. That's not counting the less bills but only the profit of selling. Ofc it requires a lot more moneys these days to get into the market than it did when I did it, and no one knows where it's going to go next. I personally think that the homes are overpriced.

I have seen 10 year loans. You should talk about paying the house/flat of is not as common in Sweden, just pay bank fees like a rent is more normal here I think than in the US. I hate apartments and rather live by the forest edge in my own house and like that way more :)

Why do Americans feel the need to say "right now" all the time? We get it that it is at the moment when you say it. Starting stating obvious stuff gets annoying ;) That said, you did not do it as much and it was an informal video, thanks :)

hi Stefan. I am from India. I have been following you for the past 3 years. I would like to meet you, I am in Sweden now. Please let me know how to contact you. I have sent messages on Facebook as well.