Sub-leasing

To sub-lease housing means that you will be leasing it from a private person instead of a company. For example, I may have a contract with Heimstaden and I might decide to go to Singapore and study for 6 months. Instead of cancelling my contract I can decide to lease my room privately to someone for that 6 month period, and then continue living in the room when I come back. So that is sub-leasing!  The advantages with sub-leasing are that there is no waiting list and that rooms are almost always furnished. This disadvantage is that you have a restricted amount of time that you may live in that apartment/room, and if you haven’t signed a contract it is easy for the person to change the rental period/rent – not that this happens very often but it is a risk that you don’t have when renting directly from a housing provider. Read more about sub-leasing.

The Student Union has arguably the largest sub-let housing database in Uppsala. It is called “studentboet”. That is the webpage you are visiting right now. When you find a room that you are interested in you need to contact that person yourself using the contact details you can find there. It is recommended to both email and call/SMS the person, if possible. It may help to buy an international phone card or to use a program such as Skype to ring internationally cheaply.

Blocket is a popular Swedish site where people buy and sell things, including housing. This site is entirely in Swedish, and there is no guide in English, but if you have some capabilities with a Scandinavian language, or you have a Swedish dictionary then you may find some interesting results here. Clicking on this link should help you to find the right page http://www.blocket.se/li?ca=10_s&cg=3020&st=u&w=1&m=113 If it is not correct then follow these steps: open www.blocket.se click on “Uppsala”. Where it says “alla kategorier” click and scroll down until you find “lägenheter”. Finally, click the button which says “uthyres”. Then click “sök”.

Finally, you can even try the local newspaper. The website is www.unt.se Look in the left menu until you see “bostad”, then you can click on that and use their search function.

If you still do not have a room and you will soon be travelling to Uppsala – I recommend that you read the information about extended stay accommodation, a comprehensive list of youth hostels and bed & breakfasts in Uppsala.