Rents have risen moderately through most of the country, Statistics Finland reports on Thursday. However, rents for privately financed apartments continued to edge downward in the Helsinki metropolitan area between April and June.
Rents for non-subsidised dwellings in the capital region decreased by 0.3 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Elsewhere in Finland, rents increased by an average of 0.4 percent.
University cities are driving rental growth, but in the greater Helsinki area, the supply is so abundant that rents are falling, Eemeli Karlsson, an economist at the Finnish Landlord Association, said in a press release on Thursday.
Rents for privately financed rental apartments increased the most in Rovaniemi, Vaasa and Joensuu. Meanwhile rents of government-subsidised dwellings increased most in Vaasa, by 3.3 percent.
Free-market rents decreased the most in Porvoo (-1.9%), Kerava (- 1.6%) and Vantaa (-1.2%).
Nevertheless, Helsinki has retained its place as Finland's most expensive university city. The median rent for a privately financed studio apartment in the capital was 730 euros a month during this spring and summer.
The second-most expensive university city was Tampere, where the average or median rent was 600 euros.
A year ago, the government cut housing subsidies for some 150,000 students in Finland.
