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- What it is: Västerås's flagship waterfront district on Lake Mälaren, built from the 2000s on the old eastern harbour, all modern flats, boardwalks and a marina.
- Who it suits: young professionals, families and downsizers who want the "live by the lake" address and do not need a busy high street on the doorstep.
- What it costs: the top of the local market, roughly 38,000 to 48,000 kr per m², well above the Västerås average.
- What people complain about: it is new, so the everyday high street is thin, and some corners are still being finished.
First impressions
Öster Mälarstrand is Västerås showing off its waterfront. It sits just southeast of the centre, on Lake Mälaren, wrapped around the old eastern harbour where cargo and industry used to be. Over the last two decades it has become the city's flagship new district: modern apartment blocks stepping down to the water, boardwalks and canals, a large marina, and parks along the shore.
The feel is calm, open and unmistakably designed. You get clean modern facades, glass balconies facing the lake, jetties full of small boats in summer and the old steam power plant, now the Steam Hotel, rising like an exclamation mark at one end. It is the address people in Västerås point to when they talk about living by the water, and it is priced to match.
This is the city's premium lakeside quarter, and it knows exactly what it is selling.
Who lives here, and what the streets look like
The crowd here is a mix the developers planned for: young professionals who want a new flat with a view, families drawn by the parks and the flat, safe streets, and downsizers trading a house elsewhere in the city for a lift and a lake. It is a settled and comfortable district rather than a scruffy or student one, and it reads as such.
The streetscape is new-build Sweden at its most deliberate: low-to-mid modern blocks in brick and render, wide paved walkways, boardwalks along the canals and the marina, and the water almost always in sight. It is flat, quiet and easy on the eye, if a little uniform, and it is still filling in at the edges where building continues.
Getting around
Öster Mälarstrand runs on buses and bikes. Västerås has no tram or metro, so local public transport is the VL city bus network, and from here that means a bus into the centre and on to Västerås Centralstation. The district sits out on the eastern shore rather than beside the station, so it is a ride rather than a step to the trains. From the Centralstation the national rail network takes over: fast trains reach Stockholm Central in about an hour and Stockholm Arlanda Airport in roughly an hour to an hour and a quarter.
The other half of the answer is the bike. The whole district is flat and the cycle paths run straight along the water into town, so many residents simply ride.
Typical weekday minutes from Öster Mälarstrand, with the icon showing how. Times via Google Routes API for a typical weekday ~08:00, measured from the neighborhood centre; the icon shows the fastest sensible way (walk, bike, transit or car), 2026-08.
Daily life
Day to day, Öster Mälarstrand is a district you live in for the water rather than the shops. There is a grocer in the blocks and the marina has its café and its restaurant, but the retail is thin the way a new area's retail is thin, so for a proper high street and a big weekly shop the centre is a short bus ride or bike ride away. What you get instead is the lakeside: a walk or run along the boardwalks, a coffee by the marina, the beach promenade and the parks. For food delivery, Foodora, Wolt and Uber Eats cover the district.
Local Places Worth Knowing
Independent and close by, chosen on merit. Nobody pays to appear here. Links are being confirmed.
A Västerås konditori with a spot right on Notuddskajen by the marina, for coffee, cakes and a light lunch with the water in view.
Lunch, dinner and catering in bright premises at Notuddskajen by the small-boat harbour, with a wide view over Lake Mälaren.
The old Västerås steam power plant on the shore, now an 18-storey hotel with restaurants, bars and a pool club, the district's unmistakable landmark.
A small bakery-café at Öster Mälarstrand where the bread and pastries are baked on site, a low-key neighborhood fika stop.
Checked August 2026. Places close and change, so tell us if something here is out of date.
Schools and families
Öster Mälarstrand is a young family district, but it has no year-9 school of its own. The nearest municipal year 7-9 school is Viksängsskolan in adjacent Viksäng, whose leaving grades average a meritvärde of 217.5 out of 340 (Skolverket, 2024/25), a little below the national mean. For the younger years there are preschools and lower-grade schools closer in the surrounding area. Västerås has free school choice, so this is the nearest school rather than a fixed catchment, and it is worth checking admission before you sign a lease or purchase.
Kids Friendly. About as pram-friendly as a district gets: flat, new and smooth-paved, with lifts in the modern blocks, the Poesiparken playground and the waterfront parks close by, and the newer cafés and restaurants have changing tables and family toilets.
Pet Friendly. The flat lakeside boardwalks along Mälarparken, Notuddsparken and the beach promenade give easy walking right on the doorstep, though the new blocks themselves have little private green yet.
Green space, leisure and eating out
The green here is really blue: the lake is the whole point. Mälarparken and its marina, Notuddsparken to the north and the beach promenade give flat, easy walking and cycling right on the water, with jetties, swimming spots and the Poesiparken playground built in 2016. Leisure leans on the shore and the converted power plant: the Steam Hotel with its restaurants, bars and pool club, and the Kokpunkten adventure bath next door. Eating out is still growing rather than settled, with the marina restaurant and café by the water and the fuller choice of the city centre a short ride away.
What it costs
Öster Mälarstrand is the top of the Västerås market. Flats here trade at roughly 38,000 to 48,000 kr per m² (Boio, 2026), against a city average of about 24,000 kr per m², so you are paying a clear premium for new build and a lake view. The stock is almost all modern, so you get lifts, insulation and balconies over the water, and you pay for them. First-hand rents are set city-wide rather than per neighborhood, so no Öster Mälarstrand-specific figure is published.
Weather and climate
Seasonal averages for Västerås, one representative month per season. Temps SMHI (Vasteras); sunshine from Stockholm (nearest station) via Wikipedia climate box.
The honest downsides
The high street is thin. This is a residential waterfront, not a shopping district, so a grocer and a couple of marina places aside, you go into town for most errands.
It is new and still finishing. Much of the charm is the newness, but that also means some uniform blocks, greenery that has not matured, and building work still going on at the edges.
Crime and safety
Öster Mälarstrand is a calm, new and affluent waterfront district in a city that is generally safe, and daily life here feels quiet and secure rather than edgy. No standalone per-area crime rate is published for Öster Mälarstrand, with the fuller picture on the Västerås safety page.
Is this you?
If you want a modern flat with a balcony over Lake Mälaren, boardwalks and a marina on your doorstep, and you do not mind riding into town for a proper high street, Öster Mälarstrand is the nicest waterfront address in Västerås. If you want a settled high street, mature streets and the cheapest square metres in the city, an older or more central district will suit you better.
Want to know what homes here are actually worth?
Join the waitlistHow we source this
How we put this together. Gathered on the ground by our local field team and written up by the Apraiz research team. Every figure above carries its own source and date. The scores are not computed by the build; walking and transport will use open map and transit data first, then Apraiz's own model. We update prices quarterly, transport and amenities twice a year, and school data when the source publishes.
Sources: Boio, Skolverket, Utbildningsguiden, Västerås kommun / Wikipedia, Visit Västerås, Brå (National Council for Crime Prevention).
Safety and crime in Västerås →