• Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    3 days ago

    Definitely come! Let me know if you have any questions about the system. I’m a citizen, and I only did my undergrad so far, but I’m happy to help fellow American immigrants make their way here.

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Everything to do with finding housing has so far been the most difficult to figure out for me x.x Part of it I don’t know where I would be moving to yet, it’ll all depend where I may be accepted to which I should know within a couple weeks

      • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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        3 days ago

        Yeah housing can be tricky, especially in Stockholm. There is the Stockholm bostadsförmedlingen, which is good to join if you’re a resident, but queue times are completely unrealistic. 10+ years for the nicer neighborhoods. There are a number of student apartments on there though that might be easier to apply for.

        I highly recommend the apartments in Bergshamra and Lappkärrsberget, I have a lot of friends who live there. I think those apartments are owned by the student union. I’ve also seen student apartments on campus at KTH, but I think those are a special arrangement with the university maybe, not sure how you can get those.

        But yeah, the unfortunate reality in Stockholm is that the easiest way to get an apartment is to put up a down payment to buy a condo in a housing coop (“Bostadsrätt”). You can search for those on the government-owned real-estate site booli.se, but it usually takes 2 months for it to clear even after you buy. A typical down payment in Stockholm is 15% of the apartment/house value, ie $30-60k for a typical $200k-400k apartment.

        In a pinch, you can find a room to rent second-hand (“andrahandshyra”) online, but it can be a hassle and expensive to have a landlord, and it’s sometimes a bit grey-market in the Swedish system when it comes to taxes, rent-control, and BRF rules. Plenty of sites for finding those, one is blocket, and you can find many more by googling “hyra lägenhet”.

        Lycka till!