2 100 000

I was in a taxi with my mum heading back to hers. She lives in a city about 2 hours outside Stockholm. Everyone who lives there wear tracksuits and believes in god, except my mum. She wears a pyjama and believes in me.

Mum was talking loudly (as always) about the champagne she had at home waiting for us to celebrate she is becoming a granny, my new job and my flat.

-Don’t even talk about it! I felt very rough after too much celebrating on champagne the previous day.

The cabdriver started to laugh.

-Where have you bought your flat?
-In Stockholm, Kungsholmen.
-How much did it cost?!

First the British Lisa reacted and thought “how very rude to ask” but then I remembered I’m in Sweden and here you are allowed to ask.

-2,1 million (about £165k), I answered the cabdriver.

A few days later I was talking to an insurance company to arrange my home insurance. The insurance broker asked me for the address of the property.

-WOW! How much did that cost?
-2,1 million. I smiled.
-I can’t believe the prices in Stockholm, but it is a very nice street and next to the water.

Stockholm is the most expensive place to live in Sweden, as London is the most expensive place to live in the UK, or even the world.

I did ask a few people in England for their property prices before I learned that it’s not a question you ask. It’s not something you talk about. Sorry if I offended you. I ask because I think its interesting. It’s educational.

Apparently is because property prices are so expensive, especially in London, and it would give a hint of how much money someone has. And talking about money is as we all know very bad.

So even if my colleague at work, who went to a boarding school and speak poshish first didn’t want to tell me how much his home was worth, its quite easy for me to figure out that his townhouse in Fulham isn’t cheap.

Once when he was drunk I flashed my eyelashes and asked him, and he only confirmed what I already knew.

So lets all talk about property prices. I dare you.