Country: Finland

Finland

In Finland, we have a member organisation, whose contact information you can find below. Here, as a service to anyone interested, we have also collected facts and information about the housing market in general, and rental market in particular. Most of the publications and links are based on other sources, and the authors themselves are responsible for that information.

The private rental sector in Finland

Rents in the Finnish private sector were regulated until 1991 when new leases could be freely negotiated. In 1995 rents where deregulated also for old leases.
So what happened after the deregulation? After 1991 nothing really happened, rents did not increase significantly, mainly because there was an oversupply of rentals due to much construction in the 1980s. After 1995, the oversupply was history, and between 1995 and 2000 rents increased by 26% in Finland, and 42% in Helsinki.

So, did the market function – was there increased construction as an answer to the shortage? The answer is ‘no’. The private rental sector did increase slightly, but mainly as a result of the conversion of ownership flats to rental flats, as rentals became more profitable.

• A Growing Importance of Rental Housing (Global Tenant 2013)