Renting in Sweden 2026: förstahand, andrahand and what is legal

The flat is a two-room bostadsrätt in Solna, 14 500 kr a month, and the person showing it wants two months’ deposit before Friday. Whether that contract holds depends on one document you have not seen: the board’s written permission. Since 1 July 2026 a new law also decides what rent may be asked for it.

Three kinds of contract, three sets of rules

A förstahandskontrakt is signed with the owner of the building. It runs until further notice, it carries the strongest protection Swedish tenancy law offers, and the rent is set under chapter 12 of jordabalken.

An andrahandskontrakt on a hyresrätt is signed with the person who holds the first-hand contract. The rules sit in 12 kap. 39–40 §§ jordabalken, and the first-hand tenant needs the landlord’s permission before they may hand the flat over to you.

Privatuthyrning is a third thing: renting a home inside the owner’s villa, bostadsrätt or ägarlägenhet. From 1 July 2026 the new privatuthyrningslag carries all the tenancy rules for that situation, so chapter 12 of jordabalken does not apply to it. Only natural persons and estates can rent out under the law, and it does not apply at all if the landlord regularly rents out more than two apartments.

A lodger is not a subtenant. An inneboende rents a defined part of a flat from the person who lives in the rest and does not share a household with them, under 12 kap. 41 § jordabalken and 7 kap. 8 § bostadsrättslagen. That arrangement needs no permission.

One rule holds across all of them: a second-hand tenant never acquires the right to take over the first-hand contract, however long they have lived in the flat.

Permission: who has to say yes

Letting someone else use your flat independently is subletting, and it requires the landlord’s permission. If you do not get it, you can apply to hyresnämnden for permission instead.

For a bostadsrätt the permission comes from the board, under 7 kap. 10–11 §§ bostadsrättslagen, and a refusal can likewise be taken to hyresnämnden. From 1 July 2026 the grounds themselves are unchanged, but earlier rentals count against a further period only if they were of significant scope. The stated purpose is a more generous application, and the tribunals and the court of appeal will show over the next year how much that changes in practice.

An application to hyresnämnden is free of charge. It has to name both parties with personnummer and addresses, identify the property, state exactly what you are asking the tribunal to decide, and set out the circumstances behind the dispute. You send it by e-service, email as a PDF, or post.

For you as the person moving in, all of this reduces to one habit. Ask to see the permission on paper, with its end date, and match that date against the length of your contract. A sublet without permission can end at short notice, and the person who loses the first-hand contract is not going to house you afterwards.

What the rent may be

A rent must be skälig. If landlord and tenant disagree about the amount, hyresnämnden can set it. The general rent-setting norm and the two helping rules — bruksvärde, and comparing mainly with negotiated rents — sit in 12 kap. 55 § jordabalken.

To find out what comparable flats pay, contact private or municipal landlords who have negotiated their rents with a local hyresgästförening. That is the tribunal’s own advice, and it is worth more than any rent calculator on a listings site.

For a private rental under the new law, the old formula built on the home’s market value and the interest rate no longer exists. Hyresnämnden can change the rent if it is significantly higher than what is generally charged for other private rentals. What counts as significantly higher, in kronor, is not published as a table; it will be settled case by case.

So check the signature date, not today’s date. A contract signed on 20 June 2026 is judged under lagen (2012:978); one signed on 20 July 2026 is judged under the new privatuthyrningslag.

The queue, the deposit and the money you hand over

A worked example. Sara is offered that Solna bostadsrätt from 1 October 2026 for 14 500 kr a month, with two months’ deposit — 29 000 kr — requested before the viewing. She asks for two documents instead of paying: the board’s written permission, and the contract in the owner’s own name.

The permission runs to 31 August 2027. A twelve-month contract from 1 October 2026 ends inside it; a twenty-four-month one does not. She signs for twelve months, hands over nothing before she has seen the flat, and notes that a contract signed in autumn 2026 falls under the new privatuthyrningslag. If the rent later looks far above what other private rentals nearby charge, testing it at hyresnämnden costs her nothing.

Meanwhile she stands in the queue, because that is the only thing that improves while she does nothing else. Bostadsförmedlingen i Stockholm mediated 1 691 homes in July 2026, 97 of them newly built, with an average queue time of 9.2 years. The queue costs 200 kr a year; if the fee goes unpaid your interest applications are removed, and five months after the due date you are deregistered and lose your place.

On deposits, be careful with what you assume. The tenancy pages at hyresnämnden do not publish a statutory ceiling, so a deposit is a matter of contract and of trust. Write down what it covers and when it comes back, and pay nothing before you have seen the home and signed.

How to spot a rental scam

The pattern repeats. A flat priced below the area, an owner who is abroad and cannot meet, a request for the deposit or the first month before any viewing, a contract that exists only as a message, and a reason why you must decide today.

The checks that catch it cost nothing. Ask for the landlord’s full name and personnummer and match them with the contract and the property. Ask for the written permission from the board or the landlord. Insist on seeing the flat together with the person who will actually sign.

Pay only to an account in the landlord’s own name, and never by an instant transfer to a private phone number, which is the hardest kind of payment to reverse. If something is wrong, report it to Polisen and tell the site or the agency where the advertisement appeared.

What we do not know yet

The main unknown is the new law itself. Hyresnämnden may change a private rental’s rent when it is significantly higher than what is generally charged for other private rentals, but there is no published figure or percentage behind those words, and Sveriges Domstolar says plainly that how much it will matter in practice will only be visible once the tribunals and the court of appeal have decided cases under it.

The same applies to the looser rules on permission for bostadsrätt sublets. The grounds are unchanged; only the weight given to earlier rentals moved. Whether boards apply that more generously is an open question this autumn.

Queue times and fees are local and change every year. The figures above are Stockholm in July 2026; for your own municipality, check the current figure at the local bostadsförmedling before you plan around it.