COST OF STUDENT ACCOMMODATION IN FINLAND
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If you looking to apply for a student apartment for your bachelor’s or master’s studies in Finland, it’s really important to know how much different type of apartments cost to live in. In this blog I will break down how much it costs to live in a student apartment in Finland, inducing the rent, utilities, insurances and other important costs.
Types of costs to take into account
In Finland, university students get to enjoy the benefits of high quality and affordable student housing that allows students to save thousands of euros during their studies. In fact, student apartments are generally much cheaper than rental apartments found on the private market, and a good rule of thumb is that the cost of a student apartment is around half or even less compared to getting a place from a private landlord.
There are four types of costs that you have to take into account when building a budget for your student apartment:
a security deposit
the monthly rent and utilities
insurances
other miscellaneous costs
The exact cost of each of these depends on variables like the city that you live in, the apartment provider that you are using, the general location of the building, the type and size of your apartment, the age of the building and so on. Thus, all of the numbers that I will share in this blog (and video) are general estimates that you can use when building a budget.
Security deposit
Alright so let’s start with the security deposits. A security deposit is a one-time payment that you are required to deposit to the landlord when moving in. When you move out, the deposit will be returned to you in full, as long as the apartment is in good condition. However, if there is any damage to the apartment (beyond normal wear and tear), for example, if you have nicked the wall and it requires repainting, the apartment provider does have the right to use your deposit to pay for the repair. However, they will also return to you any of the money left after the costs of repair.
What is great about student apartments in Finland is that most of them use a fixed deposit which lands somewhere between 250 to 500 euro (+- 50 euro depending on the place). The exact sum depends on the type and size of your specific apartment and the apartment provider, however, if you compare this to the private market where the security deposits can be anything between 1-3x your monthly rent, you can already see how much money you are saving by applying for a student apartment.
Rent
Next let’s talk about the rent. Do remember that the exact rent will depend on the variables that I listed above, for example, the type of your apartment. In fact, if you do not yet know what kind of student apartments we have in Finland, in this video I explain all the different student apartments types available in this country.
Room in a shared apartment
Renting a room in a shared apartment is a type of living where you have your own, private and lockable room in a larger apartment that you share with 1-4 other people. The rent for a room in a shared apartment usually starts from 200-250 euros per month but they can also go up to around 450 euros per month. Again, the exact price will depend on many variables but if you are interested in applying for a room in a shared apartment, i would budget at least 400 euros per month just in case.
Studio apartments
The second type of apartments are studios, or one-room flats. In general studios are the most popular types of apartments for students in Finland and thus they can also be rather expensive for their size. The rents for one-room apartments usually start somewhere around 400 euros per month but they can easily go all the way up to 650 euros or even up to 700 euros depending on the apartment. Again, prices dependent on multiple factors, but I would recommend that you budget somewhere around 500 to 600 euros for the rent just to be safe.
Two-room apartments
Moving on to two-room apartments. These are pretty much like studios meaning that they are rented to a single person but they simply have a bit more space with one additional room. The rents for two-room apartments usually start around 400 euros and they can go all the way up to 600 euros per month.
Family apartments
Family apartments are a special type of accommodation meant for either couples or for families with children. The one major difference to all other apartment types is that in family apartments, only one of the tenants needs to be a full-time student. Still, both tenants share the responsibility for the apartment, and for example, for the rent. There are a bunch of different types of family apartments and the rents can vary a lot. However, as an example, Hoas (the largest student apartment provider in the Finnish capital region) has a range of family apartments in the Helsinki capital region and the rents for their apartments range from 500 euros all the way up to 1000 euros per month.
Utilities
Alright, next let’s talk about utilities. When living in a student apartment in Finland, you need to budget for the following utilities:
water
electricity
and an internet connection.
In Finland, most student apartments do not have separate heating costs and instead heating is included in the rent. Also, it is extremely rare to find a student apartment in Finland that would use gas so I would not worry about gas prices at all.
Water
A large portion of student apartment contracts include water into the rent itself. This means that there are no monthly, additional costs from water. However, this doesn’t mean that you should take hour long showers every day just because its included, as the apartment providers will check the overall water consumption of the whole building every year and they will increase your collective rents if your consumption is more than anticipated!
Electricity
Just like with water, some student apartments contracts in Finland also have electricity included in the rent. This is true especially with shared apartments where it’s pretty much impossible to divide the cost of electricity per person based on personal consumption. However, it is still more common that electricity is not included in the rent and in these cases you need to make a personal electricity contract with a local electric company. Here are some of the largest electric companies in Finland that you should know aboyt:
When choosing an electric company, please make sure to call multiple companies so that you can compare prices and choose the lowest cost. Also DO NOT forget to ask whether the companies have a student discount that you could use. As a benchmark, the electricity cost for two people living in a 50 square meter two-room apartment should be around 30€ per month (depending on your consumption).
Internet
Next up, you obviously are going to need a good internet connection. The cool thing about Finland is that many student apartment have a fast internet connection included in the rent. However, if this is not the case with your apartment, the same principles apply as to the electricity bill. Please contact multiple internet operators and look for the cheapest options AND remember to ask for student discounts. As a benchmark, a 300 megabit broadband connection to my old student apartment in downtown Helsinki was only 29,90 euro per month. So thats pretty much nothing.
Here are a few internet providers that I can personally recommend:
Insurances and other miscellaneous costs
Finally let’s talk about insurances and other important costs related to your apartment. First of all, while it is not mandatory by law, it is highly recommended that you get your student apartment a home insurance from day one. This is because while living in a student apartment, any damage that you cause to the apartment, directly or indirectly, is your responsibility. While the exact cost of an insurance depends on many variables like the apartment you are living in, your age, you previous insurance history and so on, a good benchmark for a small student apartment is around 130-150 euros per year. Its a very small cost to safeguard yourself from huge payments in case you would have an accident, for example, a fire in your home…
Here are a few great insurance companies that I can recommend:
Kinda talking about the same topic but moving to another type of cost, do note that as per to the Finnish law, all apartments have to have smoke detectors installed and because some student apartments do not have one pre-installed, you might have to (in some rare cases) buy your own. Whether or not a fire alarm has to be installed by the tenant should be mentioned on the website of student apartment provider, or in the tenant agreement. In terms of the cost, don’t worry if you have to buy one, you’ll find fire alarms for less than 20€ in any hardware store, so thats no biggie. But it’s still good to take into account.
Next I recommend that you check out this video where I break down what kinds of student apartments are available in Finland 👇
