Housing glossary: buying, renting and swapping terms

Home deals are full of words taken for granted yet rarely explained. Lagfart, pantbrev, amortisation requirements, accepted price, share ratios: the concepts replace each other, and nodding along unsure what they actually mean is easy. This word list works as a fast reference. Look up the word you hit, read a short straight explanation, and move on.

We gathered the concepts in themes: money and loans, law and documents, buying and bidding, renting, swapping, plus associations and property. Explanations stay deliberately short. For the bigger topics, like rent-to-own, down payments and the different tenure forms, deeper guides live here on SökHem, linked below. Preferring to browse term by term, the glossary index (in Swedish) holds each concept on its own page.

Money & loans

Amortisation (amortering): the part of the monthly payment paying down the loan itself, shrinking the debt. The rest is interest. The more you amortise, the less loan remains and the lower interest costs run over time.

Amortisation requirement: Finansinspektionen’s rules for how much you must amortise on your mortgage yearly. The requirement steps up the bigger the loan runs against home value and income. Exact levels can change, so check with the bank.

Mortgage (bolån): the loan you take financing a home, with the home as security. Since the bank holds security in the home, rates run lower than ordinary unsecured loans.

Mortgage cap (bolånetak): the rule for how large a share of home value you may at most borrow against the home as security. Since 1 April 2026 the cap sits at 90 percent, against 85 before. The rest you must pay yourself as a down payment, and often the mortgage cap, not monthly cost, becomes the threshold into the ownership market.

Down payment (kontantinsats): the share of the price you must pay with your own money since the bank may not lend the whole sum. With the mortgage cap at 90 percent, since 1 April 2026 that means at least 10 percent of the price.

Pre-approval (lånelöfte): a bank statement of how much you preliminarily may borrow, based on your finances. No finished loan, but it shows sellers financing sits ready, in practice a requirement to join bidding.

Interest deduction (ränteavdrag): tax reduction on part of the interest paid during the year. Currently you get 30 percent back on interest costs up to a certain level, cutting the real cost of your mortgage.

Fixed rate (bunden ränta): interest locked at a set level for an agreed period, say one, three or five years. You know exactly what the loan costs, but usually pay rate-difference compensation repaying early.

Variable rate (rörlig ränta): interest following the market, normally changing every three months. Often lower than fixed rates but can rise and fall, so monthly cost runs less predictable.

Deposit loan (handpenningslån): short-term credit covering the deposit until your own money or sale proceeds pay out. Rates run higher than ordinary mortgages since it is temporary credit.

Bridging loan (överbryggningslån): short credit bridging the gap buying new before selling old. It covers the down payment on the new place and resolves once the old home sells. Rates run higher than ordinary mortgages.

Green mortgage (grönt bolån): mortgages with slightly lower rates for high-energy-performance homes, say a good energy class in the energy certificate. The idea is rewarding energy-efficient homes.

Capital gains tax (vinstskatt, reavinstskatt): the tax you pay on profit selling a home. For private homes the tax is 22 percent of taxable profit. Profit is sale price minus purchase price and certain deductible costs.

Deferral (uppskov): the chance to postpone paying capital gains tax when you sell and buy a new pricier home. The postponed amount carries an annual standard charge until the tax is eventually paid.

Assessed value (taxeringsvärde): the value Skatteverket assigns a property, normally set around 75 percent of market value. It bases property charges and some other calculations, but says nothing about market worth.

ROT deduction (ROT-avdrag): tax reduction for labour costs renovating, rebuilding and extending your own home. The deduction covers work, not materials, with a per-person yearly ceiling.

RUT deduction (RUT-avdrag): tax reduction for household services like cleaning, moving help and gardening. At a move, moving cleans and moving help can often fit inside RUT.

Running costs (driftkostnad): the ongoing costs of living, beyond loans and fees: power, heating, water, waste, insurance and upkeep. Running costs differ hugely between flats and houses and belong in the housing calculation.

Law & documents

Title registration (lagfart): the official proof of owning real property, registered at Lantmäteriet. Buying a house, you must register title and pay 1.5 percent stamp duty on the price.

Mortgage deed (pantbrev): a document showing part of the property mortgaged usable as loan security. Lacking deeds for the whole loan amount, new ones must be issued, costing 2 percent stamp duty on the amount.

Purchase price (köpeskilling): the agreed price for the home, the sum the buyer pays the seller under contract.

Deposit (handpenning): the share of the purchase price, often around 10 percent, paid shortly after the purchase contract is written. It confirms the deal and usually sits in the agent’s client funds account until moving day.

Settlement statement (likvidavräkning): the final reckoning at moving day showing what the buyer pays after deducting the deposit and adjusting for fees, interest and running costs. It gives both sides a clear final sum.

Easement (servitut): a right for one property to use part of another, say a road, well or jetty. Easements follow the property, not the owner, applying even after ownership changes.

Joint property association (samfällighet): property or facilities owned and managed jointly by several properties, often through an association. It can cover roads, green areas, water and sewage.

Joint facility (gemensamhetsanläggning): a facility several properties benefit from and share, say a shared road, parking or sewage plant. Costs and upkeep split between participating properties.

Building permit (bygglov): the municipal permission needed to build new, extend, or materially change a building. Lacking permits for what is already built can become the buyer’s problem.

Energy certificate (energideklaration): a document describing a building’s energy use and energy class. Sellers should normally show a valid certificate selling houses.

Hidden defects (dolda fel): defects in a home existing at purchase yet undiscoverable even in careful inspection, and unexpected. Buying real property, sellers can owe for hidden defects up to ten years.

House survey (överlåtelsebesiktning): a technical review of a house’s condition around purchase. It helps buyers meet their duty to inspect and find flaws before the deal binds.

Purchase contract (köpekontrakt): the binding agreement between buyer and seller regulating price, moving day and conditions. The deal legally happens here, with reservations like loan conditions written in.

Deed of purchase (köpebrev): a simpler document drawn up at moving day as receipt that the purchase price is paid. The deed of purchase is needed to register title.

Moving day (tillträde): the day you access the home, final payment settles, and keys hand over. From moving day you carry costs, insurance and liability.

Buying & bidding

Bidding (budgivning): the process where several buyers bid on a home until one buyer remains. Bidding binds nobody legally in Sweden until the purchase contract is signed. Anyone may pull out until then.

Teaser price (lockpris): a deliberately low asking price meant to attract many buyers and drive bidding. It breaks good agent practice yet still appears, so always compare against area final prices.

Asking price (utgångspris): the price a home markets at from the start. It is the seller’s and agent’s starting point, not a ceiling, with final prices often landing above in hot markets.

Accepted price (accepterat pris): an asking price the seller declared willing to accept. It should give a more realistic price picture than a teaser, but bidding can still run past the level.

Final price (slutpris): the price a home actually sold for. Area final prices are the best material for judging what you should count on paying yourself.

Tenure forms

Tenant-owner apartment (bostadsrätt): the right to live in a certain flat plus a share in a tenant-owner association owning the building. So you own the right to live there, not the walls, but you can sell, renovate and keep value increases. Read more in our guide on tenant-owner, rental and freehold.

Rental apartment (hyresrätt): a home you rent from a landlord for monthly rent. You own nothing building no wealth, but skip down payments and credit checks taking no price risk. First-hand contracts in attractive spots run hard to get.

Freehold (äganderätt): owning the property directly, usually a house or terraced house with land. No association or landlord sits between, giving full freedom but full responsibility for upkeep and all costs.

Owner-occupied flat (ägarlägenhet): a flat you own directly with its own title, like a house, with rights to sell, mortgage and let without association permission. The form exists in Sweden since 2009 but stays rare.

Association & property

Tenant-owner association (bostadsrättsförening): the economic association owning the building, which you join buying a tenant-owner apartment. Association finances decide your monthly fee, so always read the annual report before buying.

Share ratio (andelstal): the figure stating your flat’s share in the association. It often steers how large a part of association costs you pay through the fee and how much say you hold.

Annual report (årsredovisning): the association’s financial report for the year, with debts, income, costs and maintenance plan. It is the most important material for judging whether an association runs well and fees stay stable.

Living area (boarea, BOA): the heated, measurable living space in a home, the areas counting as full-value housing. BOA is usually stated as the home’s size.

Secondary area (biarea, BIA): areas belonging to the home but not counting as full-value living space, say basements, garages or boiler rooms. BIA values lower than living area.

Layout (planlösning): how home areas are arranged: room placement, size and how they connect. A good layout can make a smaller home more usable than a bigger one badly arranged.

Renting

Second-hand letting (andrahandsuthyrning): when a first-hand tenant or tenant-owner lets their home to someone else. It normally needs permission from the landlord or tenant-owner association, with unauthorised letting risking forfeited contracts.

Rent-to-own (hyrköp): living as a tenant holding the right to buy the home later, while part of the rent saves toward the down payment. The model takes on the down-payment problem step by step. Read more in our rent-to-own guide.

Find right with SökHem

The concepts above appear whether you buy or rent. But they get easier handling searching in good time knowing what you look for. On SökHem you place a buying brief with your requirements and budget, and the matching actively looks for fitting sellers, even ones who have not listed publicly yet.

Hitting a word you still feel unsure about is rarely a stupid question. Ask the agent or your bank to explain, or look the concept up here again. The surer you stand on the words, the better decisions you make when it counts.