Stockholm was the hardest market I have ever heard of, with the exception of Seoul. Essentially, 50% state-owned and the other 50% buy only. 0% first-hand rentals.

We did get one from a guy moving in with his gf for 6 months then it became a year as he stayed. Then they moved to Singapore and we stayed for two more years.

The ****ty market is my only complaint about Sweden.

Most of my colleagues moved every three months as they couldn't get anything longer unless they bought (which a few did with 10% down or about 250,000 SEK on a 2.5MSEK single bedroom flat ... two-room). They did interest only and it worked out to the same price as a "short-term" rental about between 8000 and 12000 SEK/month (two-room with a "balkong".)

This was for a bostadsrätt arrangement.

Malmö and Lund should be much easier.

In good news, buying a piece of cake, even with 0% down (with a "topplån"), and most of the bidding is done by website and SMS after 1 or 2 mass viewings. You can easily go from looking to competitively bidding by SMS on the web, to singing in less than 2 weeks, with almost no money in.

Also don't forget about the monthly "avgift" and that your mortgage can/will save you a huge amount of tax (sometimes more than 10% of what you owe per month depending on income and tax bracket and mortgage).

Lycka till!