Student blogs

Housing… an incredibly daunting subject when you move to a new country–especially as a student. Although finding housing in Stockholm can be a challenge, it’s definitely not impossible. In this blogpost, I will discuss my experience with finding housing and some tips for incoming students! 

Once I knew for sure that I would be going to Karolinska Institutet, I began to look for housing and gained a general sense of the housing market in Stockholm. Once I seriously started looking for housing (around May), I realised the options were limited especially when it came out affordable student options. I personally wanted to live in an apartment with other students, however, I realised that a lot of Stockholm housing consists of studios or grandmas renting out a spare room. 

My first tip is: know what’s important to you

Is location the most important? Is cost? Do you mind living with other people or definitely want to live alone? What are your non-negotiables when looking for housing? What are you willing to compromise?

Since living in an apartment with other students was important to me, I couldn’t be too picky when it came to location. So I decided to expand my search to around the Stockholm area. It’s important to note that having a communte of 40-50 minutes to KI is perfectly normal in Stockholm, and that many students commute this much everyday.

My second tip is: be consistent and start as soon as possible 

It took me weeks of emailing, messaging and more video-call based house viewings than I can count to find housing that met my non-negotiables. I was on Facebook housing groups everyday, and always had housing websites open on my laptop. Finding housing, especially when you have never even lived in the country, is difficult. So do not leave it to the last minute! 

My third tip is: look in the right places (and diversify)

Many of my friends and peers found something through different private student housing platforms (Allihoop, CoLive, UNITY Living, Spånga Campus Stars). Other friends found their housing through a website called Qasa. I found my first house through Facebook (although I was especially careful with the scams). There are definitely housing options out there, but it’s important to look on different platforms. 

It’s important to note, that SSSB, Stockholm Studentbostäder, is a low-cost student housing option started by the Stockholm Federation of Student Unions. However, apartments and rooms are given out based on queue days. To collect queue days and apply, you have to be a registered student in a student association (KI’s being Medicinska Foreningen) on Mecenat and have a personnummer. This leads me to…

My fourth tip: start collecting queue days on SSSB

You can start registration on SSSB up to 3 months prior to the course start date. In my experience, many students end up moving into SSSB corridor rooms/apartments because they are way cheaper than other apartments and have different locations throughout the city. So it’s a good idea to have this as back-up in case you decide to move housing later!

After weeks of consistently looking I finally found a house in Stockholm that agreed to rent a room to me. After a few months of living there I realised I wanted to live more centrally and closer to my friends. So later in the year I found a room on Qasa and now live there! This brings me to my last point. 

My last tip is: don’t worry if it’s not perfect!

Once you’re actually in Stockholm, you can always look for something else, whether that be SSSB or an apartment with friends. That’s what I did. It’s also much easier to find something when you are actually able to go to house viewings and ensure that its real. Additionally, you can do all the research in the world, but you will really get to know the housing situation and areas of the city once you live here. It’s important to keep in mind that the August/September period is an especially difficult time to find housing since so many other incoming students are looking. During other periods, it becomes easier to find something. 

Although finding housing can be a stressful and sometimes overwhelming process, there is housing in Stockholm. I hope you find these tips helpful! You’ve got this!