This is the second part. The first was about the cooperative apartment (bostadsrätt). This one is about houses (hus or villa) and about the ägarlägenhet (owner-occupied apartment).

The main difference is a single one. When you buy a house or an ägarlägenhet, you are not buying membership in a cooperative but the property itself (fast egendom, real property). Because of this, more responsibility and more costs rest on the buyer.

Money, the lånelöfte and bidding work here the same way as for an apartment. The new mortgage rules from 1 April 2026, the bank's preliminary decision and the course of bidding (budgivning) are no different, so I will not repeat them in detail. All of that is in the first part. Below is only what is specific to real property.

House (hus, villa). You usually buy both the building and the plot of land. But it is essential to check whether the land is actually owned. There is such a thing as tomträtt (site leasehold), where the land is owned by, for example, the municipality, and the house owner pays a fee (tomträttsavgäld) for the right to use it. The main difference from an apartment is that all responsibility for the roof, foundation, heating, drainage, water, sewage and other systems now rests on the owner. More freedom, but also more to look after.

Ägarlägenhet. This is an apartment which, unlike a bostadsrätt, is legally real property. In other words, it is closer to the kind of home ownership familiar from Ukraine. It has its own property designation (fastighetsbeteckning), and ownership is registered with Lantmäteriet (the Swedish land registry). Such an apartment can be sold, mortgaged or rented out without the cooperative's permission, because there is no bostadsrättsförening. The common parts of the building are managed jointly by the owners through a samfällighetsförening (joint property management association). Ägarlägenheter are still uncommon, mostly in new-build developments. Procedurally, buying an ägarlägenhet resembles buying a house more than buying a bostadsrätt: here you apply for title registration (lagfart), pay stamp duty (stämpelskatt) and, if needed, take out new mortgage deeds (pantbrev), while there is no cooperative membership or approval by it.

Duty to investigate (undersökningsplikt)

When buying real property, the buyer's duty to investigate the home is especially far-reaching. It is called undersökningsplikt, and it should be taken seriously. As a general rule (Chapter 4, Section 19 of the Land Code, Jordabalken), the buyer cannot complain about defects that could have been discovered through a careful inspection. This rule applies whether or not the buyer actually carried out an inspection.

You should check, among other things, the foundation and structure, the roof and façade, drainage, the basement and signs of damp, wiring, water and sewage, heating and ventilation, the fireplace and chimney, and radon.

It is worth engaging an independent building inspector (besiktningsman). But even a professional inspection does not always cover the whole house. Wiring, water and sewage, and chimneys are often left out, so those parts may need to be examined separately. If the inspection report says that something needs to be investigated further, for example a moisture measurement or a camera inspection of the pipes, it is better to do it before signing the contract. Otherwise, in a dispute, a failure to carry out the further investigation may be interpreted as the buyer having had reason to know about the defect.

Legal checks

A technical inspection is not enough. Through Lantmäteriet and the municipality you should check who is the registered owner, whether there are any easements (servitut), whether the land is owned or held under site leasehold (tomträtt), whether there are building permits (bygglov) for extensions and alterations, whether there is a detailed development plan (detaljplan), whether there is a joint facility (gemensamhetsanläggning), and which mortgage deeds (pantbrev) have already been taken out.

An easement is not always a problem. But the buyer should know in advance whether, for example, a neighbour has the right to drive on a road across the plot, or whether other people's utility lines run through it.

The cultural-historical status of the house should be checked separately. Protection here comes in two different forms, which work in different ways.

The first form is a listed building (byggnadsminne) under the Heritage Conservation Act (Kulturmiljölagen). This status is decided by the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen), which also sets out protective provisions (skyddsbestämmelser) in its decision, that is, what must be preserved and what may not be changed. Changing anything contrary to these provisions requires permission from the Länsstyrelsen and presupposes special reasons (särskilda skäl). Important for the buyer: this status is entered in the property register, and the Länsstyrelsen's orders and prohibitions apply even against a new owner. A byggnadsminne is therefore normally visible in the documents, and the restrictions generally pass to whoever buys.

The second form is trickier, because it is easy to miss. Many valuable houses are not listed buildings. They are classified by a local museum (for example a stadsmuseum, city museum) and/or protected through the detailed development plan (detaljplan) under the Planning and Building Act (Plan- och bygglagen, PBL). The museum's classification has no legal effect in itself. But the municipality relies on it when assessing a building permit, and the actual restrictions come through the detaljplan, with designations such as q, k, Q, a demolition ban (rivningsförbud), care provisions (varsamhetsbestämmelser) and an extended permit obligation, and through the general requirements of the PBL, under which a building must not be distorted (förvanskning) and changes must be made with care. These requirements apply even when the change itself would not normally require a permit. The problem is that such protection is not always visible in the ordinary property register.

In practice, both forms mean the same thing. Changes to such a house, even the façade, windows, roof and sometimes the interior, have to be cleared, notified (anmälan) or applied for as a building permit, and permission is not always granted. So before buying, you should specifically approach the municipality's planning office (stadsbyggnadskontor) with a query about the detailed plan and the protective provisions, and check the building's classification with the museum. It is the buyer, as the future owner, who must find this out. You cannot rely on the estate agent here. They do not always know about it.

Another thing to check is an unfinished or unlawful building permit (bygglov). Check that all alterations have a permit and were completed according to the rules. A building permit is valid for five years: the work must start within two years and be completed within five years from the day the decision gained legal force (laga kraft), otherwise the permit lapses. And to lawfully use what has been built or altered, a final approval from the municipality (slutbesked) is required. If the previous owner obtained a permit but did not finish the work or did not obtain the final approval, or built without any permit at all, it becomes the new owner's problem.

The municipality can issue a rectification order (rättelseföreläggande), that is, a demand to put things right, up to demolition at the owner's expense, and impose a building sanction charge (byggsanktionsavgift), regardless of whether the new owner knew anything about it. As the new owner, you fully inherit the legal responsibility for the condition of the property. And even if ten years have passed and the municipality can no longer demand demolition, this does not make the building lawful. So at the municipality you should check the building permit history and that a final approval exists for all alterations before signing the purchase contract (köpekontrakt).

Contract (köpekontrakt and köpebrev) and deposit (handpenning)

For a house and an ägarlägenhet, the sequence of documents is slightly different from that for an apartment.

First, the parties sign a purchase contract (köpekontrakt). This is the main agreement with all the terms: price, the completion date (tillträde), and conditions on the loan and on the technical inspection. By law (the Land Code, Jordabalken), a contract for the purchase of real property must be in writing; a verbal agreement has no legal force. At signing, you usually pay a deposit (handpenning), as a rule around 10 percent of the price.

Everything that matters to you must be written into the purchase contract. If the loan has not yet been finally approved, this is written in as a financing condition (köpet gäller om lån beviljas, the purchase is valid if the loan is approved). If you want to carry out or complete a technical inspection, that too is written in as a separate condition. A verbal promise is not enough.

Then comes completion (tillträde). The buyer makes the final payment, and the parties sign a deed of transfer (köpebrev), that is, a document confirming payment and that the purchase is completed. The köpebrev is needed to apply for title registration (lagfart), that is, to register the new owner with Lantmäteriet. It is the lagfart that protects the buyer, among other things against the seller selling the same property to someone else.

Costs for lagfart, pantbrev and stämpelskatt

This is the main difference in money compared with an apartment. For a bostadsrätt these costs do not exist, but for a house and an ägarlägenhet they can be significant.

Lagfart is the registration of the new owner. For a private individual the stamp duty (stämpelskatt) here is 1.5 percent of the higher of two amounts: the purchase price or the assessed value of the property (taxeringsvärde) for the relevant year. On top of that comes an administrative fee of 825 kronor.

Mortgage deeds (pantbrev) are needed as security for the loan. If there are already mortgage deeds in the house for a sufficient amount, no new ones need to be taken out. For new mortgages (inteckningar) you pay 2 percent of the amount plus a fee of 375 kronor per mortgage.

A worked example. A house for 3,000,000 kronor, a loan of 2,700,000 kronor. The down payment is 300,000 kronor. The lagfart will come to about 45,825 kronor. If there are no mortgage deeds in the house and they must be taken out for the full loan amount, that adds around 54,375 kronor. Together, the initial costs can easily exceed 400,000 kronor, and that is without the technical inspection, insurance, moving and renovation. Current amounts are published by Lantmäteriet.

Hidden defects (dolda fel)

Claims for defects in real property can be made within a ten-year period from the day of completion (tillträde). But the seller must be notified within a reasonable time after the defect is discovered.

Ten years does not mean that the seller is responsible for every breakdown throughout that whole time. For a defect to be considered hidden, it must have existed at the time of purchase, must not have been discoverable through a careful inspection, and the buyer must not have had reason to expect such a problem given the age, condition and price of the house.

Here it is important to understand two things together. Real property is sold in its existing condition (befintligt skick), and the duty to investigate lies with the buyer. So defects that could have been discovered through a careful inspection normally remain the buyer's problem, not the seller's. The contract may also contain a disclaimer clause (friskrivningsklausul), by which the seller limits their liability. A simple rule of thumb. When you buy an old house with an old roof and old drainage, you cannot expect all its systems to be like those in a new build. More on hidden defects in houses can be found on the page of the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket).

Tax on sale

Here the same applies as in the first part. If a private home is sold at a profit, the tax is, as a general rule, 22 percent of the gain, and in the calculation you count not only the purchase price but also certain costs for improvement, repair and the sale itself. So keep receipts and documents from the moment you buy.

What to check before signing

When buying a house or an ägarlägenhet, before signing you should obtain the bank's final approval, carry out a technical inspection and fulfil your duty to investigate (undersökningsplikt), check the legal side through Lantmäteriet and the municipality, in particular the cultural-historical status and the building permit history, make sure that all important terms are written into the purchase contract (köpekontrakt), and budget not only for the price but also for lagfart, pantbrev and other costs.

And the main rule is the same: do not sign a document whose content you do not understand.

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Author: Julia Dangoor