Placepoint

Fastighet

A fastighet is the Swedish unit that real property is divided into: a piece of land, bounded horizontally and sometimes also vertically, registered as a separate unit with a unique fastighetsbeteckning.

The definition is set out in jordabalken, chapter 1, section 1: "Fast egendom är jord. Denna är indelad i fastigheter." Jord (land) means not only the surface itself, but also trees and vegetation, water, the airspace above and the ground below. A fastighet is not a building, it is the land the building stands on. Buildings put up by the owner of the fastighet are normally treated as fastighetstillbehör, that is a legal part of the fastighet, in the same way as in the Norwegian system, where the building follows the land. The exception is a building on someone else's land, for example under tomtefeste (Swedish tomträtt or arrende): there the building is movable property, not fastighetstillbehör, because the owner of the building does not own the land.

The boundaries of a fastighet change only through fastighetsbildning: avstyckning (a new fastighet is separated off), sammanläggning (two fastigheter are merged), klyvning (a fastighet with several co-owners is split according to ownership shares) and fastighetsreglering (land is transferred between existing fastigheter, the Swedish counterpart to arealoverføring). All these forms require a lantmäteriförrättning, and the result is entered in the fastighetsregistret with a new or amended fastighetsbeteckning. A fastighet can also hold a share in a samfällighet: an area or a facility (road, jetty, pipe or cable network) that several fastigheter own and use together, without the samfällighet itself being a fastighet.

Two reforms have widened what a fastighet can be. From 1 January 2004 (SFS 2003:1281-1284, amendments to jordabalken and fastighetsbildningslagen, see fastighetsbildning), the tredimensionell fastighet (3D fastighet) became possible: a fastighet bounded both horizontally and vertically, independent of the fastigheter above and below. This means that different floors in the same building volume can be owned by different parties, typically shops and homes built over railway tracks, or car parks and data halls under other parties' fastigheter. From 2009 came the ägarlägenhet: a 3D fastighet limited to a single dwelling unit, which gives a resident direct ownership of the flat, including a registrable lagfart, unlike a bostadsrätt, which is a share in an association and not a fastighet at all.

For a Norwegian reader, the fastighet is the closest thing to a matrikkelenhet, most often a grunneiendom. The comparison does break down in one place: Norway has the matrikkel and Grunnboken as two separate registers, one for the physical facts and one for the rights. Sweden has no separate matrikkel concept. Everything is held in the fastighetsregistret at Lantmäteriet, which is both an object register and a rights register in one.

From Placepoint's glossary: Fastighet

More information: Jordabalken (1970:994), Lantmäteriet: Tredimensionell fastighetsindelning, Lantmäteriet: Ägarlägenheter

English: Fastighet is the Swedish real property unit (roughly "real estate parcel"), the basic building block of the Swedish land system (Swedish-specific term, no exact English equivalent).

Common questions we come across

What is a fastighet?

A fastighet is a bounded piece of land, registered as a separate unit in the fastighetsregistret with a unique fastighetsbeteckning. It is the basic unit in the Swedish property system, defined in jordabalken, chapter 1, section 1.

What is the difference between a fastighet and a building?

The fastighet is the land. A building standing on it is normally treated as fastighetstillbehör and follows the fastighet automatically when it is sold. The exception is a building on someone else's land, as under tomträtt, where the building is movable property and is sold separately from the land.

What is a tredimensionell fastighet?

A 3D fastighet is bounded both horizontally and vertically, not only in the plane. The arrangement came in 2004 and means that different floors in the same building volume can belong to different owners, for example shops built over a railway track.

Is an ägarlägenhet the same as a Norwegian eierseksjon?

No. An ägarlägenhet is a fastighet in its own right (a 3D fastighet limited to one dwelling unit), while a Norwegian eierseksjon is a co-ownership share in a building, not an independent matrikkelenhet. A bostadsrätt is closer to the Norwegian borettslag model, but it is not a fastighet either.

What is the Norwegian counterpart to a fastighet?

Closest is a grunneiendom or a matrikkelenhet. The difference is that Sweden has no separate matrikkel concept apart from the rights register: both parts sit together in the fastighetsregistret at Lantmäteriet.