I haven’t forgotten about the book contest! Don’t worry. I am just waiting for the weekend – I think it will be more festive to announce the winner then.

In the meantime, I want to talk about something that seemed very puzzling to one of my friends. And because it also happens to be a very practical bit of information, I thought it would be a good idea to go over it in a special blog entry.

You see, my friend is not in Sweden right now, but that is not stopping her from looking for an apartment in the town she is going to live (I don’t remember where exactly she’s moving to, all I know is that she’s looking for a place somewhere down south). Long-distance apartment hunting is never easy. Heck, it’s not easy when you are doing it right there and then in person! Now imagine trying to do it in a language that you have just started to learn very recently. Not fun at all.

So, let’s go over some points that might make this process a bit less confusing.

One thing that my friend wanted to know was: “Anna, what’s a second-hand apartment? Does that mean that the apartment is not new? That it has been lived in before?”

Hmmm… I can see how someone might have gotten this idea, because the literal translation of “andra hand lägenhet” is indeed a “second hand apartment”. But when talking about apartments, “andra hand” simply means “a sublet”. So, someone owns an apartment and wants to sublet it. This is called “hyra ut i andra hand”, or “andra hand” for short.

So, are there “första hand” apartments? Sure there are! This type of apartment is when you rent (or buy) directly from a housing company.

Another thing that you may notice when reading Swedish rental ads is something like this “1 rok” or “2 rok”.
“Rok” simply means “rum och kök” – room and kitchen.

So, if you see an ad listing “2 rok”, you know the apartment will have 2 rooms and a kitchen. This would most likely be what in the US we call a “1 bdr”. A one bedroom apartment that has a living room and a kitchen. In Sweden, we just count the total number of rooms, regardless of whether they are living rooms, dining rooms or bedrooms. This is something worth remembering, because there is nothing worse than finding out later on that what you thought was a two-bedroom apartment is actually a one bedroom plus living room type of place. I actually know of at least one foreign expat who made that mistake. That lady also had two kids, so you can imagine how unhappy she was when she saw what “2 rok” actually meant.

Frequently, you will also see it abbreviated to “2:an” – that also means that the place has two rooms plus a kitchen.

And finally the most important word of them all (just so you’ll know what you’re renting):

• lägenhet (def. lägenheten, pl. lägenheter, pl. def. lägenheterna) – apartment (or flat as they call it in some parts of the world).

I am no expert when it comes to renting apartments, but if you remember these basics you should manage to get by just fine. And I hope this short explanation will be useful to those of you, who like my friend, are trying to sort out a place to live in Sweden BEFORE actually moving to the country. Good luck! I know it’s not easy. Especially in Stockholm.