Thanks - I was wondering if you had it from some official statistics or if it was your own experience.

For comparison, in Copenhagen, the avg. salary for 5 yrs is around 37K DKK, which corresponds to 47K SEK. That's according to our labour union statistics. I'm a bit surprised if the difference between our two cities is really that large (but maybe it is).

All what I wrote comes from my personal experience/data. I don't follow any union/magazine's salary survey.

I've also friends who are working in Copenhagen & Salary is more there. Then there are friends who work in Copenhagen but live in Malmo because housing is more expensive in Copenhagen than anywhere in Sweden.

If I would rate Oslo, Copenhagen & Stockholm from salary point of view, it'll follow as:

1. Oslo 2. Copenhagen 3. Stockholm

All this comes from my personal circle of friends.

> housing is more expensive in Copenhagen than anywhere in Sweden

In some ways yes, in some no. Short-term or unofficial sublets are more expensive than the prices you mention elsewhere in the thread. Especially sub-lets of a single room have shot up in price, because there's a shortage of dorms in Copenhagen, so many university students are trying to do temporary room rentals on the private market.

But "proper" rentals of a regular apartment are much easier to get in Copenhagen than in Stockholm, without needing to sit on a multi-year waitlist. A typical 1-bd legal/official rental on a 1+ year contract might be around 5-7k DKK, i.e. about 6-9k SEK. A 2-bd maybe 6-10k DKK (8-13k SEK). You can certainly pay more too, but there are a lot in that range.

I lived in a 3 bedroom apartment (90 sqm) (in Göteborg) from 13 minutes tram to city center and I used to pay 6500 SEK till 2013. Now the same cost 6800 (rent increased due the inflation, landlord demand etc.).

The quality of apartments are better in Sweden than in Copenhagen. You can open blocket and book a visit to any Malmö apartment for that matter and you'll see the difference easily.

The same quality of life (living, rental etc.) is expensive in Copenhagen.

Eh, I suppose it depends on what you consider "quality of life". The apartments are quite different in Copenhagen and Malmö. I strongly prefer the ones in Copenhagen, but I can see how someone might prefer the ones in Malmö.

In my opinion most Malmö apartments are just sort of drab and depressing. Where they are nicer is that they are newer, so have elevators, more modern bathrooms, etc. But the ones I've seen have a quite... institutional feel to them. They remind me of a school or government building: 1970s or 1980s concrete-and-tile construction, arranged into big housing developments with rows of identical-looking buildings. It's practical I guess, but doesn't have much character. There are a few renovated pre-20th-century buildings in central Malmö that have a lot more character. A friend-of-a-friend has a really beautiful apartment in one of those, an old brick factory building converted to housing, with floor-to-ceiling windows and interesting architectural design. But those kinds of places aren't cheap at all.

The main problem though is that in most of Sweden it's just impossible to get a proper rental without waiting years on the waitlist. All you can get are these temporary sublets, where you're always at risk of having to move. The only other alternative, if you don't have years to wait, is to buy an apartment. You can do that pretty reasonably in Malmö if you have the money, probably cheaper than Copenhagen (but purchasing in Copenhagen is cheaper than purchasing in Stockholm).

I think we're comparing apple vs oranges.

New buildings in Sweden compares more or less the same as new buildings in Copenhagen. My point was the more or less "same kind of things" is expensive in Copenhagen.

Regarding the rentals, if you'are willing to pay more money for the new buildings, its easy to rent out in Stockholm.

I would like to say that there is NO QUEUE in Stockholm if you would like to rent out a brand new space in a modern building. Yes the supply isn't that large for new productions, but you can found a new one with first hand contract under 2 months of time.

Again, this time would be less in Copenhagen, but the rent of New Buildings are more in Copenhagen than the new buildings in Stockholm. (within 20 minutes of commute of course).

I was thinking more of classic buildings, nice brick or stone buildings with character. And somewhere bikeable to the city center, not out in the suburbs. Those are pretty easy to rent in Copenhagen on a proper contract, for pretty reasonable prices.

But if you're really willing to go 20 minutes out on S-train, Copenhagen becomes dirt cheap. 20 minutes takes you all the way out to places like Rødovre, Brøndby, Taastrup, Ishøj, or Tårnby, which are very cheap, 1-bd for more like 4k DKK (5k SEK), possibly less if you look around. Overall I just don't see Copenhagen as an expensive city for housing. Some things are expensive, but housing isn't particularly so.

Average salary for programmers in the private sector, 25-29 years old in Sweden is 31 300 SEK/month. Average salary for programmers in the private sector, all ages, in Stockholm is 43 500 SEK/month. Cant find age and region data combined though. All figures are from the official Statistics Sweden database (government statistics bureau).

You really shouldn't compare salaries through currency exchange rates. When shopping in Denmark for say 100 DKK you will get aproximately the same in Sweden shopping for 100 SEK.