THERE’S something quite British about the Swedes. It’s the willingness to spend all afternoon standing in a queue, for a start, and the sheer unflappability. If you believe Abba, the Swedish response of “my, my” to news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo is just the sort of calm appraisal that you’d have expected from Wellington or Churchill.

And while we don’t share their enthusiasm for being whipped with birch branches, it is clear that in other wood-related matters we see eye-to-eye. As revealed opposite, the stripped timber look of Ikea has become big business in Britain — but is that really the way the Swedes like to live?

Paul Adams, a scientist who spent two years living in the southern city of Malmö, says it is: “The Swedes take great pride in their houses. They don’t go to pubs, instead people come to visit and so everything has to look fantastic. They have wall-to-wall bookcases, lots of art, and leave the curtains open and put candles in the window so that passers-by can see how lovely their house is. The Ikea style pervades Swedish houses, even the older generation go for this look, but they tend to buy it from more classy, and more pricey, outlets.”

Britta Sugden, a Swedish woman who married a Brit and runs a small estate agents, says: “When we moved to Britain 30 years ago we took a full trailerload of Ikea products with us, because it was so different from the Victorian look of most British houses at the time.” Now, however, Ikea is slightly looked down on by some people in Sweden because it is so cheap.

All products in the furniture store are named after certain criteria. Fabrics and ornaments have girls’ names, while armchairs and sofas are named after places. This caused mild amusement in Germany last year, however, when a child’s bunk bed, named Gutvik after a Swedish town, turned out to mean something more carnal in German. It was swiftly withdrawn.

Although the country has been governed by the left-wing Social Democratic Party for more than 60 of the past 70 years, the desire to own property runs deep in Sweden. A second home is considered almost a birthright, with many people renting a flat in the city and keeping a house in the country, inevitably overlooking one of the country’s 96,000 lakes.

The breathtaking scenery is one of the reasons why Swedes like to live in the country — and the space. There are about 52 people per square mile and the population of less than nine million has plenty of room to stretch out. They are also allowed by law to roam freely through the countryside. Under the right of public access law, everyone may ramble across privately owned lands, camp up to three nights in the same spot without permission, and swim and sail on private lakes.

Sweden is slowly becoming an attractive destination for foreign investors, who tend to want a west-facing holiday cottage on the shore of a lake. There are no restrictions on foreign ownership and a large villa on a lake, with perhaps a dozen or so acres of forest around it to hunt your lunch in, would set you back less than the price of a small London flat.

Compare the way that Sweden’s sportsmen live with that of their British counterparts. Henrik Larsson, the Sweden and former Celtic footballer, bought a large 19th-century villa with stables for his showjumping wife in Helsingborg, just north of Malmö, at the end of last year. It cost him just £564,000. For that money David Beckham would be struggling to find a house with enough wardrobe space in England.

“My British friends can’t believe how much house you can get for your money in Sweden,” says Britta Sugden. But although it can be cheap to buy, she cautions that labour in Sweden can be expensive, so be realistic about buying a wreck with the intention of doing it up.

She is currently selling a holiday house in Flor, 230 miles northwest of Stockholm, which is served daily by Ryanair. Those who don’t fancy the four-hour drive could take a hopper flight from Stockholm to Sveg airport, which is only half an hour’s drive from the pretty red wooden house.

It has four bedrooms, three reception rooms, and comes with almost six acres of forest and meadows. Needless to say, it faces on to a lake for those bracing morning dips. With a further three outbuildings and a guest cabin, it seems a snip at £155,000.

Those who prefer their log cabins yellow might also be tempted by the four-bed house in the same village, which Britta Sugden is selling for £165,000. That leaves plenty of money left over for a trip to Ikea.

• www.homesinsweden.com; 0131-663 7605

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