The City of Helsinki is its own largest landowner, with the majority of new housing built on City property. The City itself both sells and rents land for housing construction.
The conditions imposed on the allocation of land for construction ensure that the City’s goals regarding forms of ownership and financing in housing are attained. The City aims to ensure a diversity and range of reasonably priced dwellings in housing production.
Housing policy in Helsinki is governed by the land use and housing implementation programme, which is drawn up for a ten-year period and revised during each City Council period, at an interval of four years. The programme determines the housing vision, the housing and land policy goals, and the measures to be taken during the programme period. The current programme runs from 2008 to 2017.
Goals for forms of possession and financing in housing production
- Government-subsidized rental housing 20%
- Other reasonably priced rental housing 20%
- Hitas, part-ownership and right-of-occupancy housing 20%
- Unregulated owner-occupied and rental housing 40%
According to the principles agreed on for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, government-subsidized rental housing should account for 20% of housing production. In Helsinki, this means 1,000 units per year on average, about half of which are intended for groups with special needs, for students and for young people leaving home. Th e City itself builds 1,500 housing units per year, at least half of which is government-subsidized rental housing.
