Since I will be in Stockholm, Sweden in less than one month,
I feel that I must make the inevitable post addressing the myriad of
difficulties surrounding the Swedish housing market.
Firstly, Stockholm is built on 14 islands so there is a lack
of available land for expansion. Stockholm is a bustling international city
with an increasing number of new residents every year, then factor in the fact
that there has been a severe lack of new construction in recent years. What do you get? A ridiculously complicated and scam-filled
housing/rental market!
From reading articles and from listening to my Swedish
friends, I have heard numerous horror stories of unsuspecting foreigners
getting ripped off by online scams. Even I, the well-seasoned traveler, almost
fell for a scam.
What NOT to do:
1.
DO NOT use Swedish Craigslist!
2.
DO NOT use Swedish Craigslist!
3.
DO NOT use Swedish Craigslist!
Did you get that? I repeat DO NOT USE SWEDISH CRAIGLIST! From my own
personal experience and from word of mouth, this is the number one sure-fire
way to lose your money, dignity and end up apartment-less in Stockholm!!
“If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.” Nowhere does
this saying ring more true than on Swedish Craigslist. Almost all the listings are for
apartments located in coveted downtown Stockholm. You will look at these
listings thinking you have hit apartment gold, but NO my friend, look again!
You will be temporarily dazed by the possibility of living in a centrally located apartment that is stylish
yet affordable, but after that initial excitement
has worn off, you may want to take a second more careful look at the posting. You
will notice that the pictures in the apartment-posting look “too good”, almost
like they came straight from the pages of a design magazine, or that the shots
of the many rooms look like they came from completely different apartments with
utterly different styles. MMM… suspicious yet?
If you are a trusting "utlänning" (like me), you may even
respond to one of the *amazing* apartment listings on Swedish Craigslist. You
will get an email from the "owner" of the apartment telling you how special
the apartment is and how much they want to make sure you take good care of it
in their absence. He will tell you that he wants to trust you, so he
will kindly ask you to provide him ALL you personal information including but
not excluded to your birthday, job, current address, phone number and a scanned copy of your passport! Then the "owner" will tell you that he is currently
not in Sweden, but hey! no problem, you can conveniently transfer him
the first months rent plus security deposit and he will mail you the keys.
WHAT?!! DO NOT send in your passport!
DO NOT transfer ANY money! Because believe me this, once you send in your
precious kronas, you will NEVER hear from the "owner" again or see your money again.
I am embarrassed to admit that after struggling for weeks to
find an apartment in Stockholm, I foolishly responded to apartment listing on
Swedish Craiglist. I even provided my information to the "owner" of the apartment,
but when the "owner"of the apartment asked me for a copy of my
passport and the first two months rent up front, thank god, I had enough sense to stop and
think. When I hesitated is when the harassing emails demanding money
started-five emails in one day asking me to transfer money or I will lose the
apartment! When I did not respond to the emails, is when I started getting
calls from international numbers. I picked up the phone thinking it was my mom
calling from China, but instead the caller actually turned out to be the "owner"of the listed apartment, who had a distinctly NON-SWEDISH accent, calling to
again to demand an immediate money transfer.
Needless to say… I was no longer
interested in the apartment.
To avoid getting ripped off, I would recommend googling the
apartment address provided in a listing. Often times you will find other
listings with the same address that have already been reported for being scams.
Also, google the name of the apartment "owner" and the email address, or even
better, copy and paste their entire email to you and click “search”. More often
than not, you will find identical copies of the email online listed as
confirmed scams!!
I have included link for Swedish Craigslist because of the
off-chance that there could be some legitimate apartment postings on
there, but I warn you again…click it that your own risk:
Now I understand that after reading my post you may feel
discouraged and overwhelmed by the daunting task of finding a reasonable
apartment in Stockholm, but do not worry there ARE still many ways to search
for legitimate apartment. Here is a great blog breaking down the right ways to
apartment hunt in Stockholm:
Personally, I found my apartment in Östermalm by creating a want-ad on http://www.blocket.se/ . Apparently
since there is a lack of
apartments, it is more common for the would be rentee to put in the effort to
make an want-ad than for the owner of the apartment to post an apartment
listing. If you decide to post on blocket.se, then I would recommand getting a
Swedish friend to translate your ad to Swedish, because while it is true that many
people in Sweden are fluent in English, Swedish is still the universal language
there. For example, the owners of my apartment are not very fluent in English
and have mainly communicated to me in Swedish.
So what is the
take home message from this post? Yes, the Swedish housing/rental process can
be throughly confusing and even hair-pullingly frustrating at times, but if you
start searching in advance, are persistent and make smart decisions, then you too CAN find your
own little piece of Stockholm to call home! ;)
Success! All mine!
To all my fellow
apartment hunters-Good Luck and DON’T GIVE UP! –Ran-xoxo-A Nomad in Heels.
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