Buying a house in Sweden: nothing counts until the signature — and sometimes you buy not a house but a share

First the order that is fixed on this site: in your first year you don't buy — you rent, you get to know the place, and only then do you decide. This article is for the moment you are that far. Two things make Sweden different from everything you know: the moment a purchase really is a purchase, and the chance that you're not buying property at all.

Nothing binds until both signatures are there

In Belgium you're bound as soon as you verbally agree; Sweden is the exact mirror image. The law sets formal requirements for the purchase of a fastighet: a written purchase document, signed by seller and buyer, with the purchase price, the designation of the plot and an explicit declaration of transfer — the seller's signature moreover confirmed by two persons as witnesses. Until that köpekontrakt is signed, nothing binds: no won bidding war, no handshake, no email saying "deal". The seller may go with a higher bid until the very last moment — and that happens. So plan your structural survey and your financing before the signing moment, because a cooling-off period like in France or Denmark doesn't exist here.

Are you buying a house — or a share?

Whoever "buys a flat" in Sweden usually buys not property but a bostadsrätt: a share in a bostadsrättsförening with the right to live in one dwelling. That is a fundamentally different product: the move runs through the association (which has to accept you as a member), you pay a monthly avgift to the association, and the health of the association's finances is just as important as the state of the dwelling itself — an association with a lot of debt is your hidden mortgage. The rules below on lagfart and stämpelskatt then do not apply; those are for real fastigheter (detached houses, and the rarer ägarlägenheter).

For a fastighet: lagfart within three months

After buying a fastighet you apply within three months for the lagfart — the registration as owner — at Lantmäteriet, with the original purchase document. With that you pay the stämpelskatt: 1.5% of the purchase price (or of the taxeringsvärde if that's higher) plus SEK 825. If you take out a mortgage for which new pantbrev are needed, that costs 2% on the new amount — so always check how many pantbrev already rest on the house, because existing ones take over your costs.

And afterwards: an annual charge with a ceiling

The annual kommunal fastighetsavgift for your own house is 0.75% of the taxeringsvärde, but with a maximum amount (well over SEK 10,000 a year) — for most houses you pay the ceiling and no more. New builds are even exempt for the first fifteen years. And with a bostadsrätt the association pays this avgift, not you — it simply sits in your monthly amount. Alongside all this, don't forget your personnummer: without that number and BankID no bank and no association will move.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Sweden.