Fastighetsregistret: how to find facts about a home

A home listing is the seller’s own description. It is often correct, but it is also made to sell. To know what actually applies to a property, who owns it, how big it is and what rests on it, go to the source. That source is called Fastighetsregistret (the property register) and it is kept by Lantmäteriet.

Fastighetsregistret is Sweden’s official record of all land and all properties in the country. It is the same register agents, banks and authorities use. As a private individual you can also get information out of it, and it is one of the best tools you have for checking facts before you bid.

What is Fastighetsregistret?

Fastighetsregistret is the central, official register of Sweden’s properties, managed by Lantmäteriet (the Swedish mapping and land registration authority). Every property has a unique designation, for example ”Stockholm Eken 12”, which works as its identity. The register is split into several parts that together describe the property’s location, boundaries, ownership and any encumbrances.

This is public information with legal weight. It is in Fastighetsregistret, for example, that lagfart (title registration), the formal proof of who owns a property, is recorded. Reading the register, you read not someone’s opinion of the home, but what is actually recorded and applies.

What can you find?

From the register you can see, among other things, who the registered owner is, meaning who legally owns the property, and when and at what price it last changed hands. You see mortgages and pantbrev (mortgage deeds), showing what loans rest on the property: a pantbrev is the security a bank takes for a mortgage. Easements (servitut) and other rights also appear, for example whether the neighbour may use your driveway, or whether you may cross someone else’s land to the lake.

You can also get the property’s boundaries and area, tax data such as assessed value (taxeringsvärde) and type code, plus information on buildings on the property. Together that gives a picture far beyond the listing’s description: not just what the home looks like, but what legally and financially rests on it. Easements and joint facilities are easy to miss in a listing but can affect both how you may use the property and what it is worth.

How to order an extract

Lantmäteriet offers e-services where you can search property information. Some basic facts, like who owns a property, you can get by contacting Lantmäteriet customer service or through their digital services. For more detailed extracts, or if you want ongoing access to the register, there are paid services, and several private providers sell packaged property extracts built on the same records.

To know exactly what is included, what it costs and which service fits your need, go to lantmateriet.se and start there. Only checking a single home before a purchase, a simpler extract or the facts the agent should already be able to show is usually enough.

How you use the register as a buyer

The practical value is that you can check the listing against reality. Does the area in the listing match the one in the register? Is the seller in the listing really the registered owner? Are there easements or encumbrances nobody mentioned? Finding differences is not necessarily anything wrong. But it is something to ask about before you bid.

Remember that a tenant-owner apartment works differently. Then you own a share in an association, not the property directly, so it is the association’s finances and annual report you mainly review, while Fastighetsregistret matters most when buying houses and other real property.

On SökHem your home deal starts before the listings even appear. You place a property watch with your criteria and budget, and the matching actively looks for fitting sellers, even ones who have not listed publicly. As you approach an actual place, Fastighetsregistret is one of the best ways to check that what you are about to buy really is what you think.