After living in second hand rentals for months now I really got tired of moving every, say 3 months. Which means a more ‘permanent’ solution was to be found. That means either going for a first hand rental, or buying one.

First hand rental is possible, however, you should be prepared to be on a waiting list for several years. Which means in my situation: no go.

Buying was the only ’sane’ option. Well, sane is an interesting word in this context. The Stockholm house/apartment sales market is sort of ‘insane’. It’s not too difficiult to find a place to your likings, but then it just starts.

It works like this:

You decide sort of on how much you want to spend on an apartment. With that figure in mind you contact a back (either in person, or through the internet) and apply for a so called lånelöfte. That ’s a guarantee from the bank where they promise to give you a mortgage for X amount of money. I went for the internet version and it took 1 minute to get it. All automated (including a credit check etc.).

There are a few websites out there where you can search for property. You make a shortlist and then the next step is to show up at a public ‘visning’ (viewing). Those viewings are usually on Sunday and on Monday evening, and allow you to walk in without an appointment. The viewings are on average 30 minutes long which means that -everyone- that is in interested in that place shows up at the same time. The seller is not there, his representing broker is however. You can walk in, open cupboards, check out the equipment in the kitchen, etc. etc. But all within those 30 minutes. Then, if you need more time, you can optionally return on the viewing of Monday evening. You then register you name on a list if you’re interested. The next day morning the broker will give you call, and then mayhem breaks loose. Please start bidding. Some brokers do everything by phone, in my case everything went by SMS after the first call and some brokers also allow you to make bids through the web.

I went to a place on Monday evening, liked it, and decided yes, I’m going to start bidding on it. The start price for the apartment was 895,000 Swedish Kronors, which is about 98,000 EURO or 123,000 USD. That’s for a 35 square meters apartment 7 subway stops from the central station. I got a phone call from the broker at around 10, and did my first bid. After 15 minutes, the price was already up to 1,000,000 SEK. It continued all day like that, after which it slowed down a bit after 15 o’clock. At around 16 o’clock I decided that the current bid was too high for me and I didn’t want to top that one. Thank you, didn’t work out for me, next week a new apartment.

But Wednesday morning I got a call from the broker, the last bidder decided not to take it, which in this case meant that my last bid was the winning bid (obviously after my bid there was one more bid and that was it. There is one good thing about this system: until you really sign the contact you can -always- bail out, regardless if you are the highest bidder or not)

Wednesday evening I went to the broker and signed the contract.

So, this means that you start looking at an apartment on Monday evening, you take, say 20 minutes to look around and decide if you would like to bid on it, you use Tuesday to bid on it, and Wednesday evening you sign the contract (in my case the apartment costed me close to 1.3 million SEK). But, after you’ve signed, there is officially still no guarantee that you can move in.

First you usually have to pay 10% of the total amount within 5 work days. No doing that is a contract breaking situation and you will have to start paying rent on that.

Then you will have to apply for a membership of a bostadsrättförening. A so-called ‘home owner association’ which takes care of the surroundings, the general property etc. They own the buildings in which the apartments are located. That membership costs money (monthly fee), but you get something back for it, like shared laundry machines (it’s not too common for apartment owners in Sweden to have your own laundry machines), shared hobby rooms, etc. The costs of membership also usually includes water and heating, and sometimes also broadband.

The BRF (bostadsrättförening) can officially deny your membership based on your financial background or payment history. I’ve never heard that they denied one, but in theory they can.

So, after they approved your membership things are set. During the signing of the contract you decided for an inflyttningsdatum (move-in date) and on that date you go to the broker together with the seller and usually your bank to arrange the last transfer of the 90% of the total sum left.

From nothing to owning an apartment in 48 hours… that’s Stockholm