Sweden

Same as everywhere in the world, housing is a lot more expensive in the big city, like Stockholm, capital of Sweden comparing to the small town like Kungsor with only few thousand population.  Prices for a single detached home with good size lot in a small town equals to a small apartment in the big city.  The Swedish Kronas(currency) is 6 Kronas equals to Cad$1.  Generally, the average income is around 20,000 to 25,0000 Kronas 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.  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.

Size of apartment ranges from 21 square meter(approx. 220 sf) & up, smaller unit costs higher per square meter than the bigger unit.  As of June, 2008, prices for smaller unit is approx. equivalent to Cad$750 per sf and the bigger one is approx. Cad$500 per sf in one part of Stockholm.  Generally speaking, the average price for Stockholm ranges between 3000 Kronas(approx. Cad$333) to 10,000 Kronas(approx. Cad$1,666) per square meter depending on the age & the location of the properties. 

'Bidding war" is very common in Sweden.  Same as Asia, they only have dual agency there.  Listing Agents in Sweden usually SMS the buyers to tell them what the highest bid is and they have to make decision right a way.  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.