Published 10 March 2023 at 11.17
Economy. A mortgage shock awaits many Swedes as over two-thirds of fixed-rate loans mature this year – at the same time as the Riksbank's interest rate increases have not yet taken full effect.
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This year, loans worth SEK 3,534 billion, or the equivalent of 72 percent of Swedes' total loans, expire.
An immigrant family in southern Stockholm, where the parents are nurses, tells SVT Nyheter that their interest was four times higher after their three-year fixed mortgage expired four months ago.
– We are already using savings, but I don't know how long it will last, says a father, Asfaha Semere, to SVT.
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The Riksbank has raised the key interest rate from 0 to 3.0 percent in nine months and plans for more increases due to the historically high inflation.
– Given that households are very highly leveraged, around 200 percent of their annual disposable income on average, we are in for a nasty surprise this year race, says LO economist Fredrik Söderqvist to SVT.