Housing and Financing in Uppsala Sweden

I never thought that finding a house to rent would prove to be such a challenge. Maybe because i live in Greece, where people will beg you to rent and even bring you cookies and juice. So how do we tackle this subject? Join me and let's find out!

This classic small-house look is something you don't see in my country.

After i received confirmation of my admission in Uppsala University (let's call it UU for convenience reasons) i thought: "Hey Kostas, let's find a house!". So i started my research on the UU website and i spent countless hours googling. It was chaotic for me to start with. One reason was that everything in each website was in swedish (and google translate sucked so i had to feed on scraps) and that i was demotivated by the forums i read, where people said that it is extremely hard to find a place to stay, that you will probably have to move houses often etc etc. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Many websites offer houses on 2nd hand contracts, which means someone is renting a place they are already renting afaik (tip of the day, afaik = as far as i know). 1st hand contracts are another story and it may take years to get your hands on one. So what about these 2nd hand contracts? Well get in line, because there is a queue system and depending on how many days you are in the queue, you get priority for the houses that are available for rent. So get registered on sites like:

• http://www.studentstaden.se/
• http://www.uaf.uu.se/index.php?pageId=21&prId=3

If you can't navigate with google translate, for the first website go to Ledigt just nu, then click on Lediga studentbostäder, filter the houses where it says Hyra (rent), and click on Anmäl intresse. And you are queue'd :)

Well, the queues can look big.

So is that all you can do? Aimlessly wander the streets of Sweden and hope for a house to sprout at your feet and a magical contract on your hand? Well your last line of defence and imo (imo = in my opinion) is blocket.se.

Easy to navigate, straight to the point, and most importantly, has NO QUEUES. So pretty much every house is up for grabs.

So:

• Fire up www.blocket.s
• Register
• Select your desired city/area either from the map or the list on your right (in my case Uppsala)
• Select uthyres right below the search bar (uthyres means rent)
• Check the most recent adds that show up (ie 3000kr/man means 3000 krona per month, while 3000/vecka means per week)
• Igar means today, idag yesterday, helps you filter the most recent ones.
• Click on a desired house add
• Read the description, google translate gives you a nice basic idea.
• If it interests you, click below the add meijla annonsören to send a quick mail to the owner.
• Type your name and phone and on the box below your question/request/anything you want to ask or say.
• Wait for reply and repeat.

This was some basic info on housing in Sweden, the situation seems to be a bit easier on smaller towns and harder on the capital or cities with intense competition for places. Do not despair, keep your cool and we will meet soon in 26th August! For additional info or questions feel free to add a comment or PM on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kostas.mandilaris.3

 This will be a common place to visit :D