Student housing situation in Helsinki worse than at any time this decade

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With the beginning of the autumn term of the academic year, finding a student apartment in the Helsinki region is now more difficult than ever since the beginning of the millennium.
     
The Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region (HOAS) has already received a record number of around 6,000 applications, up some 10% from last year, even though the number of students admitted to universities and colleges has not increased.
      Heikki Valkjärvi, the Managing Director of HOAS, believes that the most important reason for the situation is the fact that the production of rental flats has been rather scant in recent years. In addition, the rise in the cost of living has made rental living more attractive for young people in general.
      Kalevi Hartos from the Helsinki office of the national Student Rent Service says that the number of applicants is now several tens of times higher than the number of rental flats available.
      ”There simply are no vacant homes for students, as many apartments which were previously available in the rental market have been sold and turned into owner-occupied flats”, Hartos reports.
     
With the steepling increase in rents, few students are these days able to compete in the unregulated rentals market in the Greater Helsinki area.
      ”Is it any longer possible for students to concentrate on studying full-time, or do they have to work full-time and study part-time, in order to be able to pay the rent?” asks Timo Metsola, the Chairman of the Board at the Vuokraturva real estate agency in Helsinki.
      ”The rentals market in the city will soon have a pivotal role when students are considering where to start studying. Today students select the university first, whereafter they start looking for accommodation”, Metsola notes. For many, that second phase comes as an unpleasant shock, particularly in the Greater Helsinki region.
      In order to shorten the queues in the autumn, HOAS has decided to prioritize those students who come from outside the metropolitan area.
      ”Thanks to the reform of the degree structure, a record number of new masters have graduated from the University of Helsinki. Hence we have anticipated that the number of vacant flats would be somewhat higher than that last year”, reports Heikki Valkjärvi.
     
HOAS predicts that the situation will ”become normalised” by October-November.
      ”Recently, the number of applicants has been higher than the number of available apartments throughout the year. Nevertheless, I would prefer to be optimistic, as there is no sense in burying my head in the sand, either”, Valkjärvi concludes.
     
According to the experts, the right solution to the problem would be to start producing more student apartments.
      Last year, a total of approximately 230 new HOAS student homes were completed.
      At present, HOAS has some 400 new student flats either in the planning or construction stage in the suburbs of Viikki and Toukoranta in Helsinki, and in the district of Matinkylä in Espoo.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  HYY: Helsinki rental apartments too expensive for students (16.10.2007)
  Student housing shortage hits Helsinki and Tampere (6.8.2007)
  No shortage of student housing in Helsinki region (5.1.2006)

Links:
  The Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region (HOAS)
  Vuokraturva real estate agency

Helsingin Sanomat