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'Young Swedes must face reality': housing survey

The Local/og
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'Young Swedes must face reality': housing survey
Swedish new-build apartments. File photo. TT

Young Swedes are increasingly living with their parents, with the majority hoping to save enough money for a head start in the property market, a new survey has found.

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The survey, carried out by the SBAB bank, found that 43 percent of Swedes aged between 18 and 26 still live with their parents. While it was mainly the respondents on the younger end of the spectrum who lived in their childhood home, SBAB noted that 30 percent of 23-year-olds are still living with their parents.
 
Despite this, Swedes move out earlier on average than their European peers, noted SBAB in a statement. 
 
"In the EU, they are the quickest to move out," they said. 
 
Seventy-five percent of young Europeans - excluding the Nordic countries - still live at home. The tardiest were the Italians, more than nine of ten young Italians live at home, followed by the Greeks and the Spanish.
 
But being the quickest to fly the coop appears not to be quick enough for the young Swedes. Only one in 20 said that they actually wanted to live at home. 
 
"Possibly, today's young Swedes must learn to accept a situation that is closer to the reality in the rest of the EU," SBAB chief economist Tor Borg. "The financially weakest actors on the housing market are, as a rule, the most affected."
 
The bank noted that survey respondents had become more picky about a home's proximity to good transport, which its researchers said could be due to young people realizing they would not be able to afford living near to their place of work or study. 
 
"It can possibly be linked to increased competition on the housing market, where it's become even tougher to get hold of a home," the researchers noted. "And having to choose housing further away from you work or your studies means there are greater demands on functioning communication." 
 
Many of those surveyed said that they chose not to move out in order to save some money, with more than half scraping together the deposit to buy their first home. In Sweden, homebuyers must pay for 15 percent of the property value up front. Thirty-five percent planned to buy a house, 27 percent were aiming for an apartment (bostadsrätt), and 23 percent were looking to rent a flat on a first-hand contract.
 
Over half of respondents, 53 percent, said that they were specifically saving for a home of their own, up from 40 percent in a similar survey carried out by the bank five years ago.
 
The study was based on responses from 1,000 people.

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