Purchasing Real Estate in Sweden – The Swedish Land Registry

All land in Sweden is divided up in units (“fastigheter”) according to the Land Parcelling Act (Fastighetsbildningslagen 1970:988). Each unit carries it own unique identification e.g. Malmö Advokaten 5:112, where the first part always denotes the city or municipality in which the unit is situated.

Until recently the borders of a property unit had to be fixed by marks in the ground, but now a unit can be cut up both horizontally and vertically. This allows the creation of new units comprising e.g. only one floor in an office building or the division of a tenement building with shops on the ground floor into two different property units; the ground floor with the shops and the other with the tenement floors.

The units and their owners are registered in the Swedish Land Register (Fastighetsregistret) according to the Property Unit Register Act (Lag on fastighetsregister 2000:224). It should be noted that it is only the registered owner (“lagfarne ägaren”) who is entitled to sell or mortgage his or her real estate. The information in the Land Register is computerized and open to the public.