Photo: Tom Fisk via Pexels
Every July and August, thousands of international students land in Sweden and start the same scramble: finding somewhere to live before the autumn term begins. Rents on the secondhand rental market have climbed in nearly all Swedish student cities ahead of this autumn, Aftonbladet reported in July 2026, with one prospective student telling the paper that most of the listings she found cost around 12,000 kronor a month. If you are trying to work out what a room or a studio should actually cost, and how to avoid being overcharged, here is what you need to know.
What Sweden’s student cities cost right now
According to Aftonbladet’s compilation, based on rental listings gathered from the housing platform Qasa, Stockholm is by far the most expensive city for a secondhand one room apartment, at roughly 8,500 to 9,500 kronor a month. Gothenburg, Lund, Malmö and Uppsala form a middle tier at around 7,000 kronor. Cities such as Umeå, Halmstad, Karlstad, Borås and Eskilstuna are consistently the cheapest, with typical rents in the range of 5,200 to 5,700 kronor. Rents rose year over year in almost every city covered, with the sharpest increases reported in Lund.
Treat these as a general picture rather than a fixed price list. The market moves month to month, apartments in student cities are often small (many of the units behind these figures are 20 to 30 square meters), and a fair price always depends on what the landlord themselves pays and whether the place is furnished, which is a legal question with a real answer, covered below.
Why so many international students end up renting secondhand
Most dedicated student housing in Sweden, run by foundations such as SSSB in Stockholm, AF Bostäder in Lund, SGS studentbostäder in Gothenburg and similar organizations in other cities, is allocated by queue time rather than by who applies first on a given day. That means students who register the moment they are admitted have a real advantage, while students who start looking a few weeks before term often find the queues have not caught up yet. This is the single biggest reason the secondhand, or andrahand, market carries so many students: someone with a first hand contract sublets all or part of their apartment to someone waiting in line for their own.
If your university has a fee paying, non EU or non EEA track, ask its international office whether housing is guaranteed. Lund University, for example, guarantees accommodation through LU Accommodation for fee paying students, and Lund’s student nations run their own housing queues alongside AF Bostäder, with some nations giving priority to members and newcomers. Uppsala, Gothenburg and other university towns have equivalent nations, student unions or foundations worth registering with even if you expect to sublet for your first term.
The rule that actually protects you: skälig hyra
Swedish law does not let a landlord charge whatever the market will bear when subletting an apartment they rent themselves. The starting point for a reasonable, or skälig, rent is the rent the landlord pays as the first hand tenant, according to Sweden’s official courts guidance on reasonable rent. On top of that base rent, two things are allowed:
- A furniture supplement if the apartment is furnished, capped at 15 percent of the rent the landlord themselves pays.
- Charges for utilities such as electricity, broadband or a parking space, but only at the landlord’s actual cost, never marked up.
Everything beyond that is not legally reasonable, regardless of what the local market looks like or what a listing site suggests you should pay. This rule applies to subletting a rental apartment (hyresrätt). Subletting a cooperative flat (bostadsrätt) or a house follows a related but separate calculation based on the owner’s costs, and the tenants’ association Hyresgästföreningen explains the difference in more detail.
If you think you are being overcharged: hyresnämnden
Sweden has a dedicated rent tribunal, hyresnämnden, that rules on exactly this kind of dispute. As a subtenant, you can apply to have an unreasonable rent lowered going forward, and to reclaim what you already overpaid. For contracts signed from October 2019 onward, you can reclaim up to two years of excess rent; for older contracts the limit is one year. There is a catch worth remembering before you sign anything: once you move out, you only have three months to file a claim, so keep your contract and payment records for as long as you rent, not just at the end.
Staying safe on the secondhand market
The secondhand market is normal in Sweden and most sublets are entirely legitimate, but the same conditions that make it useful for students, high demand and newcomers who do not know the local norms yet, also attract scams. A few habits reduce the risk substantially:
- Never pay a deposit or the first month’s rent before you have viewed the apartment, in person or on a verified video call, and signed a written contract.
- Be cautious of rents that sit well below what similar listings cost in the same city. A price that looks too good is a common way scammers get a fast deposit before disappearing.
- Use platforms that verify landlords and listings, such as Qasa or your university’s own housing board, rather than closed social media groups with no vetting.
- Bring a friend to viewings when you can. A second person is more likely to notice something that does not add up.
- Get the rent, what it includes, the length of the sublet and both parties’ names in writing. That contract is also what you would need if you ever had to bring a rent dispute to hyresnämnden.
These precautions echo the advice Swedish student unions and housing offices give new arrivals every autumn, so if something feels off, trust that instinct and ask your university’s international office before you send any money.
Where to start looking
Register for every relevant queue the moment you have your admission letter, ask your university whether it guarantees or prioritizes housing for international students, and treat the secondhand market as a normal part of the search rather than a last resort, as long as you know what a reasonable rent looks like. You can browse current rental listings across Swedish cities, including many aimed at students, on Flatfinder.