Skåne
Västra hamnen
Living in Skåne is just nice.
Imagine getting up in the morning and walking down to the lake for the 10 minutes bus ride into Lund and Science Village. Or walking those 200 year old stairs down into a waking city, grabbing a cup of (Love) coffee. Sitting on the tram watching the city change from turn of the 15th century brick buildings into the millennial glass, wood and greenery buildings in Lund NE.
To work in Lund, you will have plenty of opportunity to choose your surroundings, there are plenty of sleepy villages, coastal towns, gravel roads, and city apartments. It is even possible to live in central Copenhagen and commute across (and under) the water (55 minutes). In terms of prices, it’s more expensive per square metre the closer you get to the big cities. However, there is plenty of less expensive options in Skåne and it’s a small region where most commutes are less than 40 minutes.
Expats and swedes alike have three options when it comes to long term accommodation
– Rent (3-month notice is the norm) usually apartments but there are houses for rent as well. Lund, Malmö and Blocket.
– You can buy an apartment (kinda), in a condominium model where you pay for an apartment and pay part of the building overall costs in the form of a monthly fee. (Check out Hemnet (translated) and booli.)
– You can buy a house, that includes less fees but still some obvious ones like trash collection, water, electricity etc. Swedes generally turn to Hemnet (translated) or Booli (sv) when they go about looking for a new house, farm, or townhouse.
The Neigbourhood
Brunnshög
Commuting and all the opportunities that morning train provides is nothing compared to walking distance to work. Science Village is a part of the city district Brunnshög, and Brunnshög is packed with super nice parks, schools, and kindergartens as in close to proximity to new apartments and townhouses. Brunnshög is expanding quickly and the easiest way to know what is ready and what is upcoming in terms of housing is to go here (svenska).
Public housing in Lund
The letting market in Sweden is fairly tricky to navigate, its highly competitive and long waits are usually on the table. On the other hand there is significant rent control. The local Public Housing company is Lunds Kommun Fastigheter (very loosely ”Lunds City Public Property Company”) they have their available rentals on display here.
The upside to the weird letting market is that there is a flourishing subletting market (’andrahandskontrakt’) where you sub-contract with the contract holder/tenant for a period of a couple of months up to years.
