Swedish property prices rose for the fourth consecutive month in April – 5.8 percent since the turn of the year and 1.7 percent compared to the previous month, according to state-owned mortgage bank SBAB.

The price of a detached home rose 1.9 percent in April compared to March, and apartments rose by 1.2 percent.

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It’s not unusual for the property market to perk up in spring, but there’s a clear increase even adjusting for seasonal effects. 

“Summed up since the turn of the year, apartment prices have risen by over 7 percent. Even the estimated trend shows a clear increase, in other words prices are rising more than you would expect given the time of the year,” said SBAB chief economist Robert Boije in a statement.

A major reason behind the price increase is the expectation that Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has stopped raising the country’s main interest rate and the hope that it might even cut the rate in its next announcement, which will come next week.

While this is expected to bump up the price of buying a property, it is on the other hand also likely to lead to lower mortgage rates.

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