Sweden and Holland real estate
Sweden and Holland real estate general information
It was a great experience to visit Amsterdam in Holland and a few small and big city in Sweden, of course including Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. As we know there are a lot of histories in Europe. Most buildings in Amsterdam were built in the 16th and 17th Century & up. For Sweden, it's 14th Century and up. They don't demolish any of these old buildings, instead, they just keep renovating them. As we can imagine, all the buildings are beautifully architecturally designed.
Properties in Amsterdam:
During my 3 days visit in Amsterdam, according to the locals, their average income is approx. 20,000 to 25,000 Euro per year. This works out to be approx. Cad$30,000 to Cad$37,500. Similar to our downtown area, there are only apartments in the city. The size range from 30 square meters(approx. 325sf) to approx. 150 square meters(approx. 1600sf). The price for the renovated old buildings, a bit outside the city centre would costs approx. $600 per sf with bigger floor area, eg. 1BR at 70square meter(approx. 750sf) is around 300,000 Euro(approx. Cad$450,000) in a 17th Century renovated building. For some pre sale project, I've spoken to a local resident said he paid 500,000 Euro(approx. Cad$750,000) for 150 square meters(approx.1600 sf) 2 years ago, approx. equvilant to approx. $470 per sf and it's now appreciated to the price range between 700,000(approx. Cad$1,050,000) to 800,000 Euro(approx. Cad$1.2million), approx. equvilant to $660 - $750 pre sf. Rent is approx. between 1,800 to 4,000 Euro per month depending on the size of the apartment. In the matter of facts, due to the high price of the properties, 70% of the residents renting in the city. Any properties along the canals regardless the age of the buildings, it would costs from 1.5million Euro and up. Apparently, Brad Pitt owns one unit along the canal.
Properties in Sweden:
I spent more time in Sweden travelled to the small towns along the South Coast as well as Stockholm, the captial of Sweden. Same as everywhere in the world, housing is a lot more expensive in the big city than the small town. Prices for a single detached home with good size lot in a small town equals to a small apartment in the big city. I'm sure we can all related to it. The Swedish Krones(currency) is 6 Krones equals to Cad$1. I am lucky to have friends live in both big and small cities so I can phsically experience the local living style there. Generally, the average income is around 20,000 to 25,0000 Krones per month(approx. Cad$3,300 to Cad$4,100). Their income tax is between 28%to 33% depending on which area one lives in. How the income tax works is if you live in a high end area such as West Vancouver or Shaughnessy in Vancouver, you will pay less income tax. Whereas, if you live in lower end area, you would have to pay higher income tax. The reason why is because the government spends more money on the lower end areas than the others. Therefore, the net income to take home is average 30% less. This is why Sweden has one of the best if not the best welfare system in the world.
I went into a real estate office where my friend lives and ask for all the active listings list in that part of Stockholm. For the size of apartments, it ranges between 21 square meter(approx. 220 sf) to 110 square meter(approx.1150sf) prices, price range between 995,000 Krones(approx. Cad$166k) to 3,495,000 Krones(approx. $580k), it works out the price per s/f is higher for the smaller unit(approx. Cad$750 per s/f) than the big unit(Cad$500 per sf.) Generally speaking, the average price for the whole city would be between 3000 Krones(approx. Cad$333) to 10,000 Krones(approx. Cad$1,666) per square meter depending on the age & the location of the properties.
One interesting fact I found out is 'bidding war" is very common in Sweden. Same as Asia, they only have dual agency there. When I told my friends about our system here, they feel we are a lot more fair by having buyer and seller agent to work on their client's best interest. Listing Agents in Sweden will just SMS the potential buyers to tell them what the highest bid is and they have to make decision right a way. They also told me the agents don't necessary tell them everything about the properties so they might end up finding some latent defects after completion. Commission on selling a property depending on the difficulty of the sells. The difficult one would costs more commission than the others. However, it still average 3% to 5% across the board.
This is exactly why we should appreciate what we have in terms of the Vancouver commission structure as well as being able to have a choice to find a buyer agent for yourself to represent you when you are out hunting properties.
If you wish to look for some properties in Sweden, you can visit www.bovision.se. Well, of course you need to know how to read Swedish.
Should you wish to know more about the different housing markets, please contact Tina Mak at 604-412-5860 or www.TinaMak.ca. Tina has been providing ultimate service since 1992. Her professional wide range of residential real estate knowledge would help you to make the wise decision.
