The most revealing moment in the comparison of the housing situation of Nordic young people was experienced at the stage when the survey was just being planned. Last September, we sat with our Nordic colleagues in the conference room of an Aarhus hotel, when a representative of Sveriges Byggindustrier presented a questionnaire that was intended to find out the views of young adults in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark about their housing situation.
The question on the form was "How did you get an apartment when you moved away from your parents for the first time?". The answer options were, for example, "with the help of my connections", "by signing up for a rental apartment queue" and "I bought my own apartment with the support of my relatives". There was no option at all for the young person to get the apartment directly from the rental housing market, by informing the landlord of their interest.
When I pointed out the deficiency, my Swedish colleague at first did not understand what it was all about. I had to explain to him a couple of times that the most typical way in Finland is to buy a home on the open market. An unbelievably enlightened expression spread over his face when he finally agreed, which is the most crucial difference between Swedish and Finnish apartment renting.
A rental apartment waiting in line for years or in minutes from an online store?
In Sweden, rents and the rental housing market are strongly regulated. In order to get a lease agreement that is valid for an indefinite period, the applicant must register in the housing queue. And at worst, be prepared to wait in line for years. I have heard that in Stockholm, some parents register their children in the housing queue when they are still small, so that they can fly away from the home nest in time. You can't even get into the student apartments in the growth centers without queuing.
A short-term rental apartment can be acquired in Sweden with a so-called second-hand rental agreement. When hunting these, the laws of the jungle apply in the biggest cities and personal relationships are worth their weight in gold. There is also an underground trade in rental rights, which has been said to be more profitable for criminals than the drug trade.
I didn't bother to confuse my Swedish colleague further by telling about a Finnish concept that is unique even internationally, where you can at best get a rental apartment from an online service with a few clicks. As long as the credit information is in order, you can get the apartment in one sitting and you can move into it even in the same week.
A relatively functional union of subsidies and markets
The results of the survey conducted by Novus were announced at the beginning of March. They show that when moving away from their childhood home in Finland, the vast majority, i.e. 42 percent, of young people had acquired a rental apartment by contacting the landlord. 30 percent had received an apartment through the housing queue, which for young people usually means a student apartment.
Today, Finland has a fairly functioning rental housing market, at least from the perspective of young people. New state-subsidized student apartments as well as normal rental apartments are being completed at a steady pace. The long period of low interest rates and the strong entry of investors into the housing market have significantly increased the supply of self-financed rental apartments. The change that took place just a couple of years ago, from students moving to the general housing allowance, has in turn made it possible for even more young people to rent an apartment on the private market.
This brings us to the list, all of which, based on the survey, are better for young people living in Finland than in the other Nordic countries:
- Young Finns get to become independent earlier than others. 80 percent of Finns aged 18–25 who responded to the survey had moved away from their parents.
- Finnish young adults are satisfied with their current housing situation. We had the fewest dissatisfied people, only 6 percent.
- Housing will not be too expensive. As many as 87 percent of young Finns felt that their housing costs were reasonable considering the location and features of the apartment. 44 percent of Norwegians did not consider their housing costs reasonable.
- The future housing situation worries less. Only 13 percent of Finns are worried about their future living situation, compared to, for example, 42 percent of Swedes.
- Acquiring a rental apartment is possible for most people. Of the young people who lived in their own apartment, more than nine out of ten could have chosen a rented apartment as well. In Sweden, 42 percent did not think that a rental apartment was possible, which means that the lack of rental apartments seems to push young people into owner-occupied housing.
The only thing where Finns are slightly behind Swedes and Norwegians is the threshold for owning apartments. In our country, almost a fifth of those living in rented accommodation said that they could have bought their own apartment if they had wanted to, while in the western neighbors a similar number lived in an apartment they already owned.
Swedish decision-makers have driven the housing market into a dead end, from which it is extremely difficult to reverse. It is very difficult to get rental apartments and their supply is not increasing, because they do not want to be built under current conditions. Too little housing construction, especially in the Stockholm area, has skyrocketed housing prices, and the indebtedness of Swedes who are used to "perpetual loans" is not being sufficiently tackled.
Finland's housing policy, on the other hand, has succeeded quite well in many respects. To the Finnish politicians who will be elected to the next parliament, I would like to send a wish that you keep your high beams on and think carefully in advance about the effects of your decisions on the housing market. And do not attempt to repair the machine, as long as it is not broken.
Read more about the survey "Young people still dream of owning a home" (news release 4.3.2019 March XNUMX)
Write a comment