Apartments A recent report by researchers crushes Helsinki’s slow system

Fresh The report gives two options for the future of the Helsinki slow system: either the system must be developed decisively or the entire system must be abolished.

The report was commissioned by the City of Helsinki and prepared by Aalto University’s Economic Working Group.

From the end of 2020, Helsinki’s political parties reached an agreement that the city is abandoning much-criticized price-regulated owner-occupied housing production, i.e., slowness.

After the decision, it has been hotly figured out what will replace the slowdown or whether anything will come. The report, published on Tuesday, is the first major report on the subject.

Aalto University the report doesn’t really say anything revolutionary about the much-talked-about housing system, but what’s interesting about the text is how it puts an end to the debate about whether the slow is fit for purpose.

According to the report, in the current situation, it is unclear what the city is even aiming for with a slow system.

“Different parties see the slow resolution of very different problems. There is no shared understanding of the problem to be solved slowly, ”the report says.

According to the report, there are probably more slow ways to solve various problems. Possible problems include excessive prices for owner-occupied housing and the segregation of residential areas.

“Most of the goals that emerged from the discussions during the work, for which the slow system is thought to be justified, are not linked to the support element at the heart of the slow motion.”

Report draws particular attention to the lack of transparency of the current slow system.

According to the report, it is very difficult for policymakers and city dwellers to assess how much it actually costs to maintain the system when the city loses potential income by providing cheaper housing.

“If the slow system is to be maintained, the most important thing is to increase its transparency. The costs that are now hidden (the revenue lost by the city) must be made visible so that they can be taken into account in decision-making. ”

Report Professor of Microeconomics at Aalto University, who worked in the working group Marko Terviö confirms to HS that the core of the report is precisely the lack of a clear picture of the cost of the system.

“Of course, the slow prices in expensive areas include price support for buyers, although some politicians have tried to ban this,” says Terviö.

According to Terviö, it is clear that the city could also sell low-rise housing at much higher prices, and it would therefore be important to know how much money Helsinki is losing through the system. This information is not available at this time.

According to the health, politicians who wanted to end the current slowdown have completely opposite views on what should replace it. The main consensus is that the name hitas should be abandoned.

Terviö would like to see the slow handling of the same thoroughness and transparency as other big decisions in the city. At the very least, there should be an upper limit on costs, as the city’s resources are limited.

“The cost of slow, for example, has never been reflected in the city’s budget, which is completely insane in terms of rational decision-making.”

57-page at the end of the report, the working group makes two recommendations for a slow future.

The first option mentioned is that the whole system could be abolished.

“The City of Helsinki would be in a better position to contribute to almost all housing policy goals by using zoned plots for the construction of unregulated owner-occupied housing. The ‘affordability’ given to some by lot has been achieved at the expense of other citizens, even though that cost is hidden outside the budget in the current system. ”

Another option is to develop a system, the so-called “intermittent model”. According to the report, it would bring the much-needed transparency to the system.

In the complex interim model, “slow housing for new properties would be available for purchase past the slow system in a situation where price support exceeds the subsidy ceiling.”

Helsinki city ​​housing program manager Hanna Dhalmannin In the opinion of the report, the main message is pertinent: information on costs and effectiveness needs to be increased so that what is worth doing in the future can be weighed as well as possible in Helsinki.

“Personally, I don’t believe that any one system can still solve the big issues of housing policy. We need a variety of tools. ”

The big question in Helsinki’s owner-occupied housing policy is how people could still buy owner-occupied housing in the expensive capital. There have been few answers to this question.

According to Dhalmann, the next slow report will be completed in August. It looks at what the slow system has produced in terms of the quality of housing design.

A presentation on the future of affordable owner-occupied housing in Helsinki is expected to be taken to the city’s decision-making by the end of the year. Dhalmann speculates that the conversation will become “hot”.