Swedish home prices fall again in September, down 13% from peak

SWEDISH home prices extended their decline in September as the central bank’s rate increases continue to pressure homeowners through higher borrowing costs.

The latest data adds to the gloom around what has been one of the world’s worst property routs amid surging inflation and a jump in interest rates – although data in recent months has shown signs of stabilization, indicating that the worst may soon be over.

Seasonally adjusted data from state-owned lender SBAB showed that housing prices declined by 1.3 per cent in September, taking the overall decline to just under 13 per cent since hitting a peak in the spring of 2022.

“We still expect prices to go down a little more during the autumn before the bottom is reached,” said SBAB chief economist Robert Boije. “The Riksbank’s recent increase in the key interest rate affects variable mortgages with some delay.”

SBAB’s data, derived from its property listing site Booli, also showed that apartment prices in Sweden were mostly flat last month, with the Stockholm area even showing an increase of 0.7 per cent in September. That suggests prices overall are stabilizing, according to Boije.

Housing prices “still show a surprisingly high resilience against both the eroded real incomes and the large rise in interest rates”, he said. BLOOMBERG