Average Swedish home: $300,000.

In Sweden, house prices continue upward, but commercial prices and rentals are backsliding. 

  • Top real estate in Sweden's capital: Fashionable Strandvägen towards Djurgården island in Stockholm.
  • Compared to the previous three months, real estate prices for private one or two family residential dwellings increased by 2% during the last three months (Dec. 2009 - Feb. 2010). This brought the average price tag for a home in Sweden beyond the $300,000 mark, or over two million Swedish crowns.

  • Figured on a year-long basis corresponding to the prevous 12 month period, this added up to a 9% overall increase. The biggest price hikes (five percent each) during the last three months occurred in Kronoberg, Halland (south and west) and Västernorrland (in the north), while there were varying drops in housing purchase costs in Södermanland (south of Stockholm), Jönköping (south center) and Örebro (west of Stockholm) counties.

  • According to the figures released by the Swedish Bureau of Statistics (SCB) this week, prices increased in all major metropolitan areas: Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö, the latter with a slightly more than average jump in 2009.

  • On the commercial side of the real estate coin, over half of the capital that was invested in Sweden in 2009 landed in Stockholm, and Malmö has kept its 10% share of the total in industrial properties.

  • Stockholm accumulated investments of SEK 16.3 billion, or 54%, compared to Malmö's SEK 3.1 billion. According to the Newsec Property Outlook Report for 2010, there is increased activity in both commerial property purchases and rentals. Property values in the Nordic countries have continued to fall, although the scenario has been declining, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Nordic City Report for Spring 2010.

  • Expected to grow, vacancies at the turn of the year were 11.5% in Stockholm, 8.3% in Göteborg and 7.1% in Malmö/Lund. "The recession is not quite over yet, and a combination of the efficiency of local need together with negative employment growth will mean increased vacancies during the year," said Michael Wallgren, chief of commerical rental space, Jones Lang LaSalle.