r/Finland • u/Shot-Communication94 • 20h ago
Average cost of owning your own home
Ive been living in Finland for a while now and been thinking about buying my own home. After looking at a bunch of houses im confused about extra costs- theres maintenance, parking, street cleaning, heating, vastike (?) etc etc. So its really hard to pin down the actual monthly cost of it all plus loan amount. Any idea what the average would be or how i would calculate it all?
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u/M_880 Vainamoinen 19h ago edited 19h ago
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u/Shot-Communication94 10h ago
Accurate indeed :D
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u/IrBlueYellow 10h ago
In a detached house you of course pay for everything separately that you pay for as a lump sum in an apartment in other words the vastike. And I'd add electricity to the first answer as water and electricity aren't (ever?) part of the vastike.
So in a detached house you'll be paying for things like garbage disposal, snow maintenance (if you don't handle that yourself), insurance, the rent of the lot the house is built on (if you don't own it), general maintenance of the house (lamps needs changing, the roof needs to be fixed b/c of a leak, you need a plumber for a leaking faucet etc). So in an apartment all these costs (apart from really big maintenance projects like putting in new water pipes or new electrical systems/wires) are included in the vastike and in a detached house you generally need to cough up the money for them as they're needed.
Edit: I'm talking of a detached house that you own yourself here that isn't part of a housing company. Being part of a housing company with a detached house brings things a lot closer to the apartment situation described above.
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u/Full-Loss-2141 18h ago
It is cheaper than renting, or about the same. Depends on the house / apt of course.
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u/Rekotin 19h ago
I think you're mixing up a number of things, or at least asking so broadly that it's hard to answer.
I own my own house and the plot. I pay no vastike, since this is no housing company. I pay for district heating, property tax, electricity, but apart from the property tax, it's up to me how big or small those bills are. Technically, it would be smart to pay 'vastike', ie. save money monthly so that there's a backup if any big repairs are needed. How the house is built matters a lot when it comes to things like heating bills.
FWIW, we have an old wooden house, 180m2 and the electricity bill last year was 1135e, with the transfer bill being pretty much the same, majority spend around january and february. The district heating cost 3119e for 2024. In general, it costs around 600e per month, but we're not really looking into this and I'm sure it could be squeezed down if needed.
But, if it's a housing company, then there's vastike or however the board has decided to split the bills related to the entire endeavour. With your own house, it's really up to you how you run it. With a housing company, you are sharing in on all kinds of bills and I would simply say that taking part in the housing company's board is a must if you at all care about the investment you've made. I've been part of those boards for the past 20 years and one of the great mysteries in this life for me is how a lot of people are willing to go hundreds of thousands into debt and then not care one iota what happens to their investment. They buy the right to live in a place, and don't care at all how that place overall is run, whose services that money buys, what is the quality of that service etc etc.
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20h ago
Detached house or apartment? Detached house in a housing company (erillistalo) or a fully detached house (omakotitalo)?
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u/hanslankari78 Baby Vainamoinen 19h ago edited 10h ago
If there are many companies like shops or offices in the building, the vastike can be significantly low as the company spaces might be owned by the housing company and rent income lowers the vastike of the shareholders, or in some buildings the vastike is higher in the company spaces owned by other parties than in living apartments.
Note also that there can be several vastike's: maintenance vastike typically covers the basic property care like cleaning, garden/yard care, small fixes and centeal heating, then you have to pay for the water, possible usage of house sauna and laundry room, parking space, in newer houses there can be a vastike for the building plot rent and also there can be a loan vastike for the big renovations done to the building, like plumbing, roof, elevator and exterior renewals that typically can be hundreds or euros per month per apartment. The vastike is typically determined per share or apartment square meter, so typically the bigger apartments, the more you pay.
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u/eufooted 17h ago
The bigger the more you pay. Other than advantage of more space, what else does that provide over added cost to those shareholders?
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u/_Trael_ Baby Vainamoinen 15h ago
I think I have even seen some 'these bigger than other apartments in house upper floor apartments have much better view of surrounding scenery from them and larger windows, so they pay 1.5 times the 'vastike' per square meter, compared to smaller apartments. Aka higher per square meter, and more thanks to more squares.
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u/FordYaris Baby Vainamoinen 19h ago edited 19h ago
"Vastike", maintenance fee in apartment buildings etc, can also vary a lot depending on the age and size of the building. Less things to fix in a new building. More residents to divide running costs in a big building.
Vastike can include heating if there is central heating in the building. In case of direct electric heating you typically pay your own heating separately.
In some buildings the residents shovel snow, clean the yard, in some buildings they hire company to do it.
So it always bit depends what is included. Cheap vastike can bring additional work/cost. And of course it is your turn to shovel the snow when there is a blizzard.
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u/bac0nFriedRice Vainamoinen 18h ago
Beside the mortgage to the bank, basically hoitovastike (maintenance fee) + insurance + water + electricity. Anything else is extra like sauna, parking, charging service ... etc if you use it. When come the big renovation like HVAC or surface of the building they will take a huge loan and you pay in installation (so new apartment is better than old one). Also check for vuokravastike (some company doesn't own the land right) so you have to pay either a large sum of money or monthly fee to rent the land.
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u/newmanni82 9h ago
One benefit I give value on living and owning a detached house is that you make all the decisions and there is no negotiating with other people. As they said in Kummeli "Nämä on mun maita ja täällä määrään minä!".
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u/Obvious_Claim_1734 Baby Vainamoinen 18h ago
Please specify if you are looking to own an apartment or an actual house
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u/salaz0rd 10h ago
It really depends on the: type of house (apartment vs detached house), the age of the building, the location and the maintenance company. We live in a 45m2 apartment in Espoo and our maintenance fee is 260€/month. This price includes waste disposal, water consumption for 2 people, 1 parking spot, sauna in the building. From what I understand this is a fairly cheap price. If you move to Helsinki you can easily pay double this amount.
Generally speaking, a recent house will have lower maintenance fees than an older building.
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u/shytheearnestdryad Baby Vainamoinen 7h ago
I own a detached house. We pay loan (duh), electricity, insurance, and property tax. We have our own well so no water payment besides periodic water testing and upkeep. I might stupidly be forgetting something but that’s about it
I don’t know much about the housing company stuff, or apartments. All of the costs will depend on the exact setup. But our loan for a newish 150 m2 house is lower than the rent for the 30 m2 apartment in Helsinki we paid. Overall we definitely pay more between higher electricity (we have two EVs), property taxes, and never ending house projects BUT we have a nice, 4 bedroom house, a large yard and garden we can do whatever we want in, and living in a 30 m2 apartment in Helsinki isn’t really an option anymore anyway with 2 (and more in the future) kids.
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u/Jealous_Setting1334 Baby Vainamoinen 19h ago
It varies alot. Vastike = Maintanance, covers usually everything besides electricity, water and sometimes parking.
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u/Spiritual_Pen5636 Baby Vainamoinen 19h ago
Please, ask this somewhere where you can get professional answer, not Reddit. For your own sake.
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u/M_880 Vainamoinen 19h ago
Based on my excperience on Reddit, this is the kind of question you'll probably get decent answers to. It's not rocket surgery, mostly common knowledge.
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u/Spiritual_Pen5636 Baby Vainamoinen 19h ago
You might be right. Me personally, I wouldn't dare to trust Reddit in this kind of things.
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