Coordination numbers for foreign holiday home owners in Sweden
Foreign holiday home owners in Sweden can experience difficulties signing contracts for electricity, telecommunications and internet services because they do not have a Swedish personal identity number or coordination number.
Border Issue Status: Solved
June, foreign holiday home owners can apply for a co-ordination number after a new decision taken in the Swedish parliament.
In Sweden, many public and private services rely on the Swedish personal identity number, personnummer. To pay property tax, for example, foreign holiday home owners have received a so-called GD number for use in their dealings with the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket.
However, the GD number is not widely used outside the public administration and cannot be used when dealing with private service providers. This means that it cannot be used, for example, to sign contracts for electricity, telecommunications or internet services.
Foreign holiday home owners therefore need to be able to apply for a Swedish coordination number, samordningsnummer, which is registered in the Swedish Population and Address Register, SPAR.
There are around 36,500 foreign holiday home owners in Sweden, more than 10,000 of whom are from Denmark. Until 2021, this group was unable to apply for a coordination number.
This changed on 18 June 2021, following a decision by the Swedish Parliament that allowed foreign holiday home owners to apply for a coordination number.
