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Foreign buyers flock to Swedish summer homes

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Foreign buyers flock to Swedish summer homes

More and more foreigners are snapping up summer homes in Sweden, new statistics show, with Norwegians, Germans, and Danes among those most eager to own a slice of Swedish summer paradise.

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Last year, foreign ownership of summer cottages in Sweden climbed by 2.9 percent compared to the previous year, according to figures from Statistics Sweden.

Overall, foreigners now own 35,045 Swedish summer homes and cabins, or about 6 percent of the overall stock.

Danes dominate the ranks of foreign owners of Swedish summer homes, with about 12,000 cottages now in the hands of people coming from Sweden's Scandinavian neighbour to the south.

The next largest group of foreign owners is Germans, who own around 10,000 cabins scattered throughout Sweden's vast wilderness.

However, the fastest growing group of foreign summer home owners in Sweden is Norwegians, who recorded a 7 percent increase in their ownership of cottages in Sweden.

Since 2007, Norwegian ownership of Swedish cottages has increased by nearly 35 percent, according to Statistics Sweden, and they now own around 9,000 cabins located in the land of their neighbours to the east.

The largest share of cabins owned by foreigners, 40 percent, is located in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden, and Värmland County in western Sweden, where 20 percent of foreign-owned cottages located.

And in 20 of Sweden's 290 municipalities, at least one third of summer cottages are owned by non-Swedes with the list topped by Markaryd in southern Sweden, where 60.7 percent of the cabins are owned by foreigners.

However, Strömstad in western Sweden and Ljungby in southern Sweden have the highest actual number of foreign-owned cottages, with 1,279 and 1,174, respectively owned by non-Swedes.

TT/The Local/dl

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