What’s with the high cost of housing in those regions? Especially contrasted to Sweden, and to some extent Norway.

by Kaffe-Mumriken

11 comments

  2. The source of the graph is too blurry to make out what it is, but I am very sceptical to the legitimacy of the Finnish numbers. I’d go so far to bet real money that they are in fact not correct.

  4. Personally renting something that big seems foreign. I imagine most people who could afford that could also get a house loan. But that’s just me.

  5. The numbers look incorrect to me as well. One thing is, it’s rarer to be renting 100m2 here – detached houses outside the big cities are affordable. Somehow the data must’ve gotten skewed. Perhaps they extrapolated based on some short term holiday accommodation?

  6. I’ve seen this reposted repeatedly on r/geography and r/mapporn. I think first it actually did say it’s “a first proof of concept”, but looks like now someone has helpfully deleted the disclaimer…

    In short, the data cannot be true. Finland has some of the most affordable real estate in “western” Europe. Even Helsinki has relatively forgiving housing prices.

    The data looks completely backwards, both in terms of the within-Finland pattern (Helsinki should be clearly the least affordable) and in terms of Finland vs. Europe (Finland as a whole should be affordable).

    I’m not sure what the issue in the methodology is. It’s almost like they accidentally reversed the Finnish numbers.

  7. Size costs money, due to heating. So 100m^2 are not often found up north in finnland. Most homes have smaller rooms that are easier to heat keep warm.

    If you look for 100m^2 houses/apartnents, there are few, and those that are around are expensive.

    Hence this statistic is distorted in finnland.

  9. High unemployment on those areas so the average wage is low compared to housing prices especially when it comes to 100m2 homes.

  10. This is indeed very weird for Finland. The most expensive housing in Finland is in Uusimaa/Nyland region around Helsinki/Helsingfors. But it shows up as a lime green shade. Sure, average income is slightly higher here too, but it shouldn’t change the overall picture.

    So my suspicion is that the stats are just wrong or there is some other weirdness going on. As someone mentioned, most people would not rent this large appartments anyway. If you can afford the free market rent, you can afford the interest too. If you can’t afford the rent, but need a large appartment (large family), you will get housing subsidies. Of course, then the ratio between rent and income can be high. But the society is taking care of it = not really a bad housing situation.

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