Swedish Property – Avoid the Euro Meltdown
I’ve said it here before and I guess now is as good a time to repeat it as any, considering the horrendous reaction of the markets to Europe’s ham-fisted approach to balancing its books. Sweden is, and has been for some time, an extremely attractive place in which to purchase property. I am, of course, referring to investment type property, but it’s a nice place for holiday property as well if that’s your thing. Just don’t expect to spend too much time on the beach there.
Now there are parts of Sweden you should probably avoid, simply because the numbers don’t really add up. Property prices in Stockholm and surrounds are not really in the realm in which you could consider them good investment grade product. The prices are too high and the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a safe haven anywhere in Europe at the minute hasn’t been helping this fact much. If you head over toward the western seaboard to towns outlying Gothenburg then you’ll fare a lot better.
The process of purchasing in Sweden is very streamlined and purchasers are protected by the Swedish Board of Supervision of Estate Agents – a lot more protection than you’ll be afforded in Ireland, which is basically none. You can ignore the slapdash NPSRA which has no statutory right to protect anyone and is, as quite a few Irish institutions are these days, just there to pick up licencing fees for the government to pay its bills.
Sweden is one of the few places in the world where the government goes out of its way to explain in great detail how foreigners can invest in Swedish property. You’ll find the latest issue of their Real Estate report here.
If you want to keep up to date with what’s happening in Sweden day-to-day then the English newspaper ‘The Local‘ is as good a place as any to start.
If you wish to make some contacts to investigate the real estate opportunities available in Sweden just drop me a line on info@diarmaidcondon.com.
