Monthly Blog- Jan 2026

James Whitmee

My first trip of the year has taken me to Stockholm, where I’m spending the week looking into the high-end apartment market. I’m staying in Östermalm, one of the city’s best and most expensive districts.

The residential market in Stockholm is strong. After the correction that followed the 2022 peak, prices have been recovering steadily, and local agents now describe Stockholm as one of Europe’s “recovery leaders.” This is largely attributed to the Riksbank’s aggressive rate‑cutting.

Sales evidence is relatively easy to obtain, as transactions are recorded and publicly accessible. Leasing, however, sits within a heavily regulated framework. Most of the sector operates under a collective rent‑setting system, meaning rents are not individually negotiated. As a result, the deregulated segment—where market‑based rents apply—is extremely small.

I found that none of the major global service providers operating in the city covers residential leasing. Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, CBRE, and Colliers all focus exclusively on commercial real estate, whilst Sotheby’s handles residential sales but not leasing.

Published research suggests that prime rents for apartments are in the order of EUR 23.50, but I think that must be average prime as I was finding the market slightly higher at 28.50 /sq m /month. Sales rates at the top end are around EUR 14,000 /sq m.