I’m writing to you from my beach condo in Praia D’El Rey on Portugal’s Silver Coast. The weather here is perfect, with a breeze off the ocean keeping the temperature on the coast in the mid 70s F—just right for me.
I’m working on my briefing setting out all the details of the off-market deal in Panama City that I’ll soon bring to members of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group.
This Thursday, September 17, I’m going live with my longest-standing colleague, Margaret Summerfield. We’ll talk through the transformation underway in Panama City, the upcoming opportunity there, and take questions live from RETA members. It’s one of the regular briefings my RETA members get.
Meantime, my scouts continue to report back from other destinations across our beat…
Last week, I shared what my scout Ciaran Madden discovered in Vadstena, a medieval town on the shores of one of Sweden’s great lakes, during his recent 600-mile journey across southern Sweden.
Today, we’re heading west to a different side of the country…
To a town where people have come to bathe, take the waters, and breathe the sea air for around two centuries.
Here, a stone fortress rises above the waters between Sweden and Denmark. An ornate cold bathhouse stands over the water. And just beyond the center, surfers chase waves along a broad sweep of sand.
This is Varberg.
Let’s dig in…
Ciaran has just returned from an extensive trip across southern Sweden. In this video on my YouTube channel, we explore the towns he visited, the homes he found and the reasons behind their surprisingly affordable prices.
Varberg lies on Sweden’s west coast, roughly an hour south of Gothenburg.
Soft-sand beaches and rocky coves line the shore. Walking and cycling paths follow the water. Overlooking it all is Varberg Fortress, whose history stretches back to the 13th century.
Yet the fortress doesn’t feel cut off from the town behind museum gates.
When Ciaran walked around it after dark, he found locals out with their dogs along the ramparts. History here is part of the everyday scenery.
Ciaran arrived toward the end of August, as local children were returning to school and the main summer season was beginning to wind down.
There were still visitors— Germans, mostly, along with other Scandinavians—but no oppressive crowds. Restaurant tables were easy to find, and traffic wasn’t a problem.
More importantly, Varberg didn’t feel like a resort sustained solely by a short summer rush. It felt lived in.
Days during Ciaran’s visit were generally in the mid-70s F, sometimes reaching around 80. Evenings fell into the 50s.
The water was bracing. That didn’t stop people jumping from the rocks or swimming laps along the shore.
Cold-water bathing is part of Varberg’s identity.
Visitors began coming here for sea bathing and spa treatments in the early 1800s. That tradition continues at Kallbadhuset, the turreted cold bathhouse standing in the water beside the fortress.
Inside, bathers can warm up in a sauna overlooking the Kattegat sea—before, if they are feeling brave, taking a plunge outside.
A 1.6-mile seaside promenade begins at the fortress and winds past rocks, beaches and cafés. Continue a little farther and you reach Apelviken, a nearly mile-long sandy beach known for windsurfing, kitesurfing and wave surfing.
This is why Varberg is known across Sweden as a surf town.
Real estate here is generally more expensive than in Sweden’s deeper countryside.
That isn’t surprising. Varberg combines a desirable coastline with year-round services and access to Gothenburg.
Yet the current listings still reveal some interesting value.
Out in the surrounding countryside, this four-room cabin—a small, classically red Swedish cottage with land around it—is listed for 1.4 million kronor, or about $150,000.
Back in town, a short walk from the coast, this two-room apartment was listed for 2.25 million kronor, or roughly $235,000. That’s real proximity to the water, the fortress, and Varberg’s café-and-restaurant scene, at a price well below what an equivalent walk-to-the-beach apartment would cost in most established coastal resort towns in Western Europe.
Here’s another…
A one-bedroom apartment in central Varberg, is listed for 1.6 million kronor—or approximately $167,000.
The apartment measures about 506 square feet and occupies the top floor of a three-story building dating from 1948. Inside, there is an open kitchen and living area, a separate bedroom with sloping ceilings and two skylights, and useful storage beneath the eaves.
Like many Swedish apartments, this is a bostadsrätt.
Rather than receiving conventional freehold title to the apartment, the buyer joins a housing cooperative and acquires the right to occupy that particular home.
The monthly cooperative fee is 4,633 kronor, or approximately $480. This includes heating, water, broadband and TV.
See the listing here.
Varberg is a genuine year-round town where you can walk from the center to the sea in minutes…circle a medieval fortress after dinner…warm up in a sauna above the Kattegat…and follow the coast toward a sandy surfing beach.
In the video on my YouTube channel, Ciaran shares more of what he discovered in Varberg, along with the other stops on his Swedish scouting journey.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. If you’re interested in these listings, you should hire an attorney and do your own due diligence. We haven’t done any due diligence on them.
