Utgångspris

The utgångspris (starting price) is the figure in the listing, the price the seller and the estate agent have agreed to advertise the home at. It is where the bidding begins, not where it ends.

One thing worth keeping apart: the utgångspris and the market value are not the same thing. The market value is the agent’s assessment of what the home is actually worth. The starting price can sit below that, often to draw more interested buyers to the viewing. So a final price (slutpris) that lands higher after bidding is completely normal, and does not mean anything has gone wrong.

What is genuinely against the rules is lockpris, deliberately setting the starting price far too low. But the line is not razor-sharp: a gap of a little over ten percent between the starting price and the assessed market value has not, in case law, been enough to count as a breach. Each case is judged on its own.

For you as a buyer: read the starting price as a floor, not as what the home will cost. Look at final prices for similar homes in the area to get a feel for where bidding actually tends to land, and set your own limit from that and from your monthly cost, not from the figure in the listing.