Student blogs

Finding housing is just never easy, is it? Especially when you get to a new city (in a whole new country!) it can feel impossible to understand the options you have. That’s why I want to introduce you to some options today. I’ll write about the different places I’ve lived at during my years in Stockholm so far and how I found them. If you want more detailed and updated information on student housing in Stockholm, check out KI’s housing guide for students.

KI Housing

If you are a fee-paying student, you can live at KI Housing for your first year. KI Housing has several locations, and you get to live with other international KI students, which is a fun and easy way to get to know people.

I myself was lucky to get to live there during my first year in Stockholm (even as EU-student), but that was four years ago and the rules were different back then. In that year, I shared an apartment with three other KI students and we had a really good time together.

Anyways, since KI Housing is only guaranteed for a year, it’s good to understand how housing in the rest of Stockholm works. All non-fee-paying students will be confronted with this right away, so let me introduce you to:

The concept of housing queues – SSSB

Swedes like queues, and even housing here is often organized in queueing systems. The concept is, that once you are signed up, you get a point for every day you’ve been a member. These points are your asset when you then actively start looking for places, because out of everyone interested in the same room/studio/apartment, the one with the highest points gets it.

The most popular housing queue for students in Stockholm is SSSB. Since SSSB is for students only, they will regularly check your student status and also your student union membership. In the case for us KI students, the student union is MF. But especially good to know here is that you can sign up even before you fulfil their criteria. SSSB gives you 90 days without requirements and will only start checking your eligibility (being a student and a union member) after that. I signed up once I knew I’d move to Stockholm, and I recommend doing that.

My experiences

Out of the people I know, most are either staying at SSSB or at KI Housing, and some have found a place on the private market. I personally live in an SSSB apartment now, but before that, I first lived in a shared apartment at KI Housing and then in a corridor room at SSSB.

With corridor room I mean that I had my own room and bathroom, while kitchen and living room were shared. In my corridor, we were 14 students, but only about half actually used the common spaces. Also the amount of social life differs a lot from corridor to corridor, but I would say it’s also in your hands what you want to make out of it. I personally enjoyed that there were people around when I felt like socializing or eating together, but that at the same time I also had enough own space for myself.

If you want to know more about the housing topic, you can check out Irem’s post about how she found her place. I’m also happy to answer any questions you have – you can contact me via email or in the comments section. For now, I would say the main takeaway is that housing is not easy, but it will work out. Just keep in mind to start early; Your SSSB membership days are your asset, so start collecting them as soon as you can.