What the series measures
This is the average interest rate on the housing loans Swedish households took out or renegotiated in a month, published in Statistics Sweden's financial market statistics. It is a rate people actually agreed, not a list price: each loan counts in proportion to its size, and every rate fixation period is included, from three-month variable rates to fixes of five years and more. Statistics Sweden quotes it each month as "the average interest rate on new agreements for housing loans to households".
The figures come from monthly reports by the lenders themselves. From January 2019 they cover mortgage credit companies and alternative investment funds that lend to households, as well as banks, so the newer lenders are in the average. The table's metadata names the Riksbank as its source; Statistics Sweden publishes it in its Statistical Database.
What it includes and leaves out
New and renegotiated means loans whose terms were set in the month: a new mortgage for a purchase, a move to another bank, or an existing loan whose rate and fixation period were agreed afresh when the old term ended. Loans running on unchanged terms are not in it, so the series tracks what is being agreed now rather than what all borrowers pay on average.
It leaves out construction credits and other accounts, and it is the nominal rate before the interest deduction. Fees are outside it too.
Because every fixation period is pooled, the average moves when the mix moves. If many households switch from variable to fixed rates in a month, the average can change even when no bank has changed its prices. The same table splits the figure by fixation period, and its three-month figure is the one to set against a variable-rate quote.
How Swedish mortgages are priced
A variable rate in Sweden is fixed for three months and then reset, so it follows the Riksbank's policy rate closely. Fixed rates for one to five years are priced from market rates that reflect where the policy rate is expected to go. Each bank publishes a list rate for each fixation period and agrees a discount with each customer, which is why the rates households actually pay, and so this series, sit below the list rates.
Two rules change what a mortgage costs you beyond the rate. The amortisation requirement makes you repay at least 1% of the loan a year above a 50% loan-to-value and 2% above 70%; from 1 April 2026 these rules moved from Finansinspektionen's regulations into law, and the stricter requirement for loans above 4.5 times income was removed. The ränteavdrag then gives you a tax reduction of 30% of net interest costs up to SEK 100,000 a year and 21% above that, as Skatteverket sets out.
How to compare it with your quote
Compare like with like. If your bank offers a three-month rate, set it against the three-month figure in the same Statistics Sweden table rather than this all-periods average. Banks also publish their own average rates by fixation period, snitträntor, which show what that bank's customers are getting.
Then work in kronor. Put the rate into the mortgage calculator with your loan and the amortisation you will have to pay, and check the result against your income in the debt-to-income calculator. If you are deciding whether to buy at all, the rent vs buy calculator uses the same rate. Allow for the deduction separately: it reduces your tax, not the rate.
Reading the chart and the table
Each point is one month, dated the first of the month and rounded to two decimals as the news release rounds it. Figures appear about four weeks after the month ends. The chart joins the months with a line, and the table lists them newest first with the change from the month before. The wider coverage from January 2019 added lenders to the average, so compare across that month with care.