Renting versus buying in Sweden
Stämpelskatt is 1.5% of the price for a private buyer, plus an 825 kronor registration fee, but only when you are buying real property, meaning a house and the land under it.
Most Swedish flats are not real property. A bostadsrätt is a share in a housing co-operative, and buying one attracts no stämpelskatt at all. If the price and rent above describe a flat rather than a house, the entry cost shown is an overstatement, and the honest figure is close to zero. This is the largest single reason a Swedish rent-versus-buy answer can be wrong: the tax depends on what kind of thing you are buying, not on what it costs.
Mortgage deed duty of 2% is another thing people expect and mostly do not pay: it applies only to newly issued deeds, which is why the other purchase costs here are just 0.5%. The money goes on the way out instead, at 1.5% to 4% agent commission depending on the region.
Fastighetsavgift, the municipal property fee, is capped at a fixed maximum per dwelling each year, so it behaves as a flat charge rather than a rate. A house worth twice as much pays the same fee, and it does not grow with the home in this comparison.
There is no mortgage insurance. Swedish lending is constrained instead by an 85% loan-to-value cap and a statutory amortisation requirement, which forces principal repayment faster than the schedule above assumes. Rent growth defaults to 2% because Swedish rents are negotiated collectively rather than set by the market.