(edit title) Life in Lulea Share your experience Options

[Beatochka]

I am coming to Lulea with my family. I would like to ask for some information about costs of living, transport, schools and - of course - the harsh climate...Is the winter in Lulea really that hard to survive? My daughter is 11. We speak only English. How she will cope with new school, learning new language? Has anybody have similar experience behind and would like to share with me? Would 3000 euro salary be enough to support a family of 3? I would appreciate any sincere reflection, comment, advice from people who regard Lulea as their HOME.

[gplusa]

Winter is only a problem for people in the south. It's no real hassle up here. Roads and footpaths are always clear, and people have good winter tyres on their cars. Public transport is good, and not really affected by the weather. 30k SEK will get you a place to rent ok. Depending on where you want to be, you'll pay around 6 000 SEK to rent a good size apartment in Luleå. A little cheaper in Boden, which is an alternative.

[Beatochka]

Thanks a lot. My partner is going first. He needs to find a flat for the time being. We will join him later. I understand, I have very little chance to find work myself before learnig Swedish. So we will have to live on his earning...Do you think it is sufficient to suppot a family of 3?

We would like to buy a house at a later stage. You said the transport and roads are good, so I believe there should be no problems if we lived outside Lulea?

[Beatochka]

Do you know any good letting agency in Lulea, that we could try?

[byke]

where are you moving from?

[Beatochka]

From Ireland...I live in the NorthWest co Donegal

[gplusa]

I live outside of Luleå and travel in every day for work. I've never had any trouble. The contractors are always out in force whenever it snows, and there's not a whole lot of ice on the roads. Last year we had one bad day when it was 30 below, about an 80kph wind, and 1m of snow fell over the course of the working day. Even then, I happily drove my Volvo across town and home, waving merrily to the Arabs trying to dig their mercs out of snow drifts.

[gplusa]

There's a little bit of a shortage of apartment accomodation in Luleå at present. Nothing too drastic, but the available areas are more limited. There's a couple of big construction projects underway at present which will a few hundred more city apartments onto the market. By a family of 3, I'm assuming that you mean 2 adults and one child ? You can start by contacting LuleBo, they are the kommun rental housing providers in Luleå. They have 2 bedroom rental apartments available for around 5,000 kr a month. Might pay to come and have a look at the areas on offer first, if you can. Before commiting to anything.

[JulieLou40]

I live outside of Luleå and travel in every day for work. I've never had any trouble. The contractors are always out in force whenever it snows, and there's not a who ... (show full quote)

I live outside of Luleå and travel in every day for work. I've never had any trouble. The contractors are always out in force whenever it snows, and there's not a whole lot of ice on the roads. Last year we had one bad day when it was 30 below, about an 80kph wind, and 1m of snow fell over the course of the working day. Even then, I happily drove my Volvo across town and home, waving merrily to the Arabs trying to dig their mercs out of snow drifts. ... (hide full quote)

I second that. The way they deal with tough weather up here would put any other country to shame (I'm thinking particularly the UK here!!!). I find that in the seriously cold winter, everything runs as normal in Luleå-transport is fine, you can drive on the roads no problem (with your winter tyres, obviously), all the businesses are open, and pavements are properly gritted-which is good for those of us who do a lot of walking.
I think the income you have quoted sounds fine to support your family, particularly renting a home. Myself & my partner are probably quite lucky, as we rent a flat from the kommun (the council) in a great area, heating and use of the laundry facilities is included (as much tumble drying as you want, yay!), and we pay a really reasonable rate, which is way less than I paid in the UK, without any of those things included.

You could stay on the waiting list for years to rent a home from Lulebo (the housing company) before you buy later on as you are planning. All the same, it probably wouldn't hurt to check out their website (www.lulebo.se) and see how you go about joining the queue.

I'm not sure how good the private rental market is here, I'm afraid.

Luleå is a beautiful place to live, I'm certainly happy I moved here. If you want to exchange details and meet up once you're here, please private message me on here. It can be nice to have friends when you move to a new country.

All the best

Julie

[JulieLou40]

Ha ha, myself & Grant seeemed to have overlapped slightly with our replies to you! Methinks we've gotten all excited and enthusiastic when we saw a question that we could both answer!! Usually people enquire about Stockholm, Gothenburg, the usual areas

[JulieLou40]

My daughter is 11. We speak only English. How she will cope with new school, learning new language? Has anybody have similar experience behind and would like to share with me?

I forgot to add before that my son (aged 10) has just started school in Luleå two weeks ago. They have a great system here for immigrants-any children that cannot speak Swedish are sent to a special type of school called Valkomsten. There they are taught intensive Swedish. My son can already count up to 50, name most of his body parts, and other amazing things, and that's after a fortnight!! When we sounded out the school back in February when we were here, the head told us that it never used to be like that, but that they realised the system of plonking foreign kids straight into a Swedish school wasn't working. The kids inveitably fell behind. So they formed this school. The head also told me that she had had the privilege of hand-picking every member of staff that works there, so she picked the best. The staff are really lovely.

The plan is that once your child reaches a suitable level of Swedish that they could understand lessons in a regular Swedish school, they then move on. This could mean anything from a few months to over a year, it all depends on the individual.

My son has already made friends from Afghanistan, China, Africa, & Russia. The system at that school obviously works, because I see all of these children communicating with each other in swedish. It's a funny sight til you get used to it

[Beatochka]

Thanks Julie...It's really upliftng what you are writing. The more I know about Sweden, the less afraid I am of the move.

[kaze]

I disagree on winter...you don't realise it until you experience it but it is hard to get through going weeks at a time without seeing sunlight.
I hear there's lamps which replicate sunlight you can get which help things but I've never had them myself/.

Sounds like a cool system for the foreign kids. Britain should steal it.

[gplusa]

I can't say that I've ever had a problem with the winters up here. The first year I started getting really tired and hungry around 2pm. I learnt that was a daylight thing, and it's not a problem now. It's also not like it's pitch dark the whole time either. And once the snow starts to lie, everything brightens up and the light takes on quite a pretty colour. So it's better if the snow arrives as early as possible, in my opinion. Give me a crisp snow covered day over a wet windy day anytime.

[Beatochka]

Thanks...How long the winter last there? What about the spring and summer? What about people in Lulea... You all sound very nice to me Friendly...