Housing | Helsinki's 1950s suburbs are on the rise: See which areas are selling the fastest

In the housing market a slight pick-up can be seen in the Helsinki region.

The fastest deals were made between October and December in 1950s residential areas outside Helsinki's inner city, such as Puotila, Etelä Haaga, Roihuvuori, the Munkkivuori–Niemenmäki area and Pohjois Haaga.

The residential buildings of the 1950s and 1960s give their own stamp to the residential area. For example, older apartment buildings in Haaga are often relatively low, 3-5 stories high.

Best Etelä-Haaga has improved its spending. While a year ago it took more than two months to sell an apartment in South The Hague, now apartments were sold in just over a month.

There were also several apartments for sale in the area, both in old apartment buildings and in new buildings to be completed in 2024.

The information can be found in the Oikotie Asunnot online service information that HS received for analysis. Areas where at least 30 old apartments were sold in October–November were included in the analysis.

The analysis looked at the marketing times of the apartments that were for sale.

Marketing time refers to the time that the announcement has been displayed in the online service. There may also be advertisements that have been removed for reasons other than because the apartment has been sold.

In all you can see a pick-up in the housing market: when you compare marketing times to a year ago, sales times have already shortened in several residential areas.

For example, in Helsinki's Haaga and Pohjois-Vuosaari, Vantaa's Vapaala and the center of Espoo, apartments moved faster in October-December than a year earlier.

However, marketing times still increased in the majority of regions. There has also been a slight rise in Helsinki, says an economist at mortgage lender Hypo Juho Keskinen.

“Marketing times are still longer than usual.”

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“Demand in the housing market has picked up, but as far as new properties are concerned, it is still frozen.”

For example, trading in Espoo's Haukilahti extended by more than 50 days. In Vantaa, marketing times were almost as long in Kaivoksela and in the Kirkonkylä–Veromäki area.

In Helsinki, the trade was clearly better than in the neighboring cities, and there were not such big delays in the marketing times.

The map below shows how marketing times have changed compared to a year ago.

The old ones The popularity of residential areas in the statistics indicates that consumers a
re still wary of purchasing an apartment in new developments, says Keskinen.

“There are still quite a lot of new properties on offer, but construction companies are tighter on the prices of the flats they drop than private sellers.”

According to Keskinen, many apartment buyers are certainly also thinking about the risks associated with the financial condition of construction companies. Recently, there have been several bankruptcies in the industry. They put consumers in a difficult situation.

At the same time, the reference interest rates for Finnish mortgages have taken a downward turn and the government has eased the taxation of capital transfers.

“Demand in the housing market has picked up, but as far as new properties are concerned, it is still frozen.”

Therefore, the interest of buyers now seems to be focused especially on older apartments in renovated housing associations in prestigious areas.

Keskinen points out that it is not worth making too far-reaching conclusions about short-term fluctuations in a small area, as even a small change in trade volumes may cause statistical bias.

From the search engine below, you can view how the marketing times for apartments have developed.