Buying a holiday home in Sweden as UK Citizen

[tonyvid]

Hi All, I considering buying a house in northern Sweden as a private holiday home and am a UK citizen. Has anyone done this please? I'm struggling with the first hurdle of Swedish banking as you need this and MobileBankID to be part of the bidding process in the buying stage. To open a Swedish bank account you seem to need a Personnummer which is a form of tax ID for nationals but you can't seem to get that without an address(chicken-egg) so what do non residents do? There is a Coordination number but varying views if that is valid for the banks. Any help and guidance gratefully received

I do intend to use it only as a holiday home for me and family only, not for rental, I don't need a mortgage to buy and will not be working there as happily retired. I have spent a lot of time working in Sweden over the last 12 years for a few weeks each time and as a UK national, so am aware of how the authorities like to know what everyone is doing in their lives but seem to be going around in a circle of deadends at the moment!

[Baldchap]

I suspect your best bet is to find a decent lawyer out there. Even if someone has done it, there's no guarantee that the process is the same or even that they got it right.

[Traffic]

I think your best bet is contact the real estate broker and explain your position with proof of funds.

There are loads of stories on Facebook about this process and basically it's a pain in the bum, some brokers are very helpful and others will completely ghost you.

There are no lawyers used in the buying process in Sweden, unless you buy directly from the seller.

You should be able to sort it as there are plenty of people who have done this in recent times, but don't expect it to be quick or easy.

[tonyvid]

Thanks for your replies, it does seem pretty arduous to get stuff started!

[Traffic]

I think you can blame Brexit for that, it would be really easy if you were an EU national, in fact easier and smoother than buying a house in the UK. I bid and one on my house by SMS, no solicitors and all done in one sitting at the real estate brokers office.

I was lucky and got in settled before Brexit/

[tonyvid]

It certainly seems that way! Sigh, flippin' Brexit, it has made some things really hard when it didn't need to be.

[Mortarboard]

Try here for some info, says furriners can buy property
https://www.norden.org/en/info-norden/housing-swed...

M.

[Traffic]

Mortarboard said:

Try here for some info, says furriners can buy property
https://www.norden.org/en/info-norden/housing-swed...

M.

It's just the real estate brokers don't want the hassle much of the time, so they just ghost foreigners, especially those outside the EU.

[Mortarboard]

Solicitor might be the way to go then

M.

[Traffic]

Mortarboard said:

Solicitor might be the way to go then

M.

They are not normally involved in the sales here, unless you find someone advertising on the classifieds sites privately and even then it is common to bring in a real estate broker.

It is notoriously tricky to do these deals with no person number or coordination number unless you can find one of the brokers who is relaxed about it.