The new statistics on rents show that the median monthly rent for a three room apartment is SEK 6 324. The median rent for a two room apartment is SEK 5 141. Rent for a one room apartment is SEK 3 665, and for apartments with four or more rooms, the median rent is SEK 7 794.

However, rents vary from one region to another. Greater metropolitan areas tend to have higher rents than small municipalities. A household living in a municipality with fewer than 75 000 inhabitants pays about SEK 1 000 less for a three room apartment than a household living in Stockholm.

Construction year affects rent

Rents vary considerably among houses built in different years. It is cheapest to live in houses constructed in the periods from 1941 to 1960 and from 1961 to 1980. The median rent for a three room apartment in these periods is SEK 6 167 and SEK 6 127 respectively.

Median rents for apartments in houses built between 1981 and 2000 and before 1941 are slightly higher – SEK 6 954 and SEK 7 026 respectively.

In houses built between 2001 and 2010, the median rent for a three room apartment is SEK 8 600. Rent in houses built in 2011 or later is even higher – SEK 9 782 for a three room apartment.

The lowest rent increase in nine years

Rents rose by an average 0.7 percent from 2015 to 2016. This was the lowest increase since 2007. The rent increase has fluctuated between 0.7 percent and 3.3 percent in the last nine years and has been diminishing every year since 2012.