Finding a place to stay will be one of the first issues to look into when you have decided to move to Sweden. Give yourself plenty of time to make all necessary arrangements before leaving your home country.  

University accommodation

Always check first with the university or company where you will do your research as some of them provide accommodation to their international researchers.

There is no national system that handles requests for researcher accommodation, but many universities have housing resources available for researchers, and can provide you with further information (for example, uac.se in Stockholm).

Those aside, there are other housing options available to you depending on your final destination. The availability and costs of accommodation vary considerably from place to place. Usually, housing is more readily available around universities located in smaller and middle-sized cities or towns. Demand is higher in the larger cities, especially in Stockholm and Göteborg, and in the university cities of Lund and Uppsala. For information on housing in specific areas in Sweden, have a look at the regional information section.

Private accommodation

You may want to, or have to, look for accommodation on the private market. If you are looking around Stockholm, you could consider using Bostad Direkt, or Företagsbostäder. Some of the major daily newspapers in Sweden have listings for sublets (andrahand lägenheter, in Swedish). You can find listings in, for example, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Göteborgsposten, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet, Expressen and the free papers Metro and City. You should be aware that it is common practice in Sweden to exchange (byta) ones first-hand contract with someone else's, and that subletting is not big business here. Avoid byteskräv flats, therefore, and look for andrahand flats in the listings. The English-language newspaper, The Local, has an collection of weblinks for finding accommodation. Short-term accommodation can be found at Hotels in Sweden.

© www.imagebank.sweden.se Photo: Kjell Holmner.