Helsinki|The rising cost of housing endangers everyday joys, say the respondents to HS’s survey. Heka’s rent increases especially affect single parents, the unemployed and pensioners.
Helsinki the city’s rental housing company (Heka) is planning new rent increases. The average increase would be 5.3 or 5.4 percent. The biggest increases will probably be made in newly renovated properties.
The increase is already the second in a short time. In 2023, the average rent per square meter in Heka’s standard apartments was 12.60 euros per month. Now it is 13.66 euros, and in 2025, after the increase, 14.38 euros.
HS asked its readers how the increase will affect their lives. There were almost a hundred answers. Most of the respondents were women and single parents. Their biggest concern seems to be the children’s well-being.
One of them is a resident of Heka triangle in Tapulikaupunki in northern Helsinki Saara Koistinen.
She is a single parent of a 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. He has a job, and on top of his earnings come child allowances and alimony.
“I know that many people have it worse. We can get by, but housing shouldn’t eat up the lion’s share of the income,” says Koistinen on the phone.
“Instead of the most expensive cheeses, I have to choose store-bought ones [ketju]products. I have to compromise on the children’s leisure activities. You can’t do anything extra nice anymore.”
Koistinen has lived in Heka’s apartment for 12 years. During that time, he has noticed that the rent has dropped from less than 700 euros to the current 850 euros. The family is also in the process of moving into temporary housing due to the renovations that will begin in the current home.
“The rent will go up. But I have great credit that the shelter can be found near the children’s schools.”
Koistinen says that in the past he was even able to save for his own apartment, but now he thinks he will have to give up on his dream.
“The saving ends there [vuokrankorotukseen].”
Multi the plight of those who responded to the survey is increased by the reductions in housing subsidies implemented by the country’s government at the same time as the rent increases. The deductible increased by eight percentage points in April.
From the answers to HS’s survey, pensioners and the unemployed also stand out as victims of rent increases. Many respondents see moving away from expensive Helsinki as their only option.
Anxiety is described as living because of living expenses. One answer states that the best way to make life easier would be death. Perhaps that throw should not be dismissed as mere cynicism.
In addition to the drop in housing subsidies and the increase in rents, the uncertainty of renters is increased by the fact that Heka will introduce new income limits in its tenant selection from the beginning of 2025.
For example, two adults can earn a total of 6,020 euros per month, and a person living alone can earn no more than 3,540 euros. The income limits apply to both new applicants and people changing apartments.
In Heka’s apartment I live in Arabianranta Teppo Luukkainen a curse word has slipped into the answer regarding the income limits.
The combined income with the spouse has fluctuated “here and there”.
Luukkainen’s fear has been that the new income limit would destroy his intentions to apply for a bigger apartment than the current one. The family includes a ten-month-old baby. The concern was resolved in a sad way.
“I lost my job. Now income limits no longer haunt me,” Luukkainen formulates on the phone.
CEO of Heka Jaana Närö told HS on Tuesday that the general rise in price levels and high interest rates are behind the upward pressure. Heka has a loan of around three billion euros.
According to Heka, the increase in rents is done because it has to operate on a cost-effectiveness basis, i.e. cover its own expenses with rental income. However, tightening the income limits could be thought to work in the opposite direction.
Readers’ answers about rent increases reflect on the crumbling of Heka’s idea more generally. As rents keep rising, the level starts to get closer and closer to the price level of the free market.
Luukkainen’s family has thought about leaving Heka for a private company.
“I have heard that the differences, especially in the rents of larger family apartments, between Heka and private landlords are not very big,” says Luukkainen.
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