How to apply for an apartment?

Instructions for applying

1. View our apartments and houses: asunnot.nuorisosaatio.fi

2. Fill in the housing application carefully.
Make sure that all the information in the application is correct, and that you have filled all the sections. Submit an email address that is in active use.

By increasing the maximum rent and expanding your area limit, you can get a home that meets your criteria faster. In Helsinki, the average rent for studio apartment (1h+k) is € 550-600 / month, so a lower maximum rent already limits several houses/apartments from your application.

Write into the "More about the need for an apartment" text box, a free-form brief description of your current life situation and why you are looking for an apartment.

3. The housing application is valid for three months (3 months).
If your application is about to expire or your situation changes after you submit your application, please fill in a new application with updated information. The new application will automatically replace the old application.

Housing application

Tenant Selection Criteria

During Nuorisosäätiö's tenant selection process, the applicant's housing needs, reasons, wealth and income are taken into account. Apartments are rented to those who need them most: priority is given to applicants in the most urgent need for housing.

Familiarize yourself with ARA's general tenant selection criteria (Available in Finnish): Aran Asukasvalintaopas. 

Asset Limitations

Asset refers to, for example, housing shares, real estate, forest ownership, funds and securities. If you have significant property, it can be a barrier to getting an apartment from Nuorisosäätiö. Assets are stated on a pre-filled tax return and does not include salary income or money in a savings account.

Asset limits are municipality-specific and are redefined annually. You should find out the current municipal-specific asset limits on the cities / municipalities' own pages.

Asset limitations

Apartment Offer

Apartment offer is always sent by email.

The apartment offer is generally valid for 2-4 days. During this the applicant must accept the housing offer and submit the attachments or reject the apartment offer. If the applicant does not respond to the housing offer, we consider that the applicant no longer needs an apartment.

Required Attachments

We have updated our housing application. In the updated application form, you can send us the required attachments by directly attaching them to your application. Sending us the right attachments at this stage greatly simplifies the application process. The attachments are the same as we would request in the apartment offering phase.

Please do not send attachments directly to Rental Service. Unfortunately, attachments sent to our rental service by email will not be processed. Only attachments attached to the application form or sent when answering the offer email will be considered. If you have submitted your application without attachments, you can fill out a new application with the attachments, in this case the old application will be replaced by the new one.

We will request you to send us the attachments only if, we can offer you an apartment. We mainly need 2-3 attachments from the applicant:

1. Income: The latest salary statement (payslip) or Kela´s benefit payment decision.

2. Assets/Wealth stated in Tax information: last Pre-completed tax return

Log In to MyTax (OmaVero): vero.fi 

After logging in: Home -> My Taxes -> Communication-> Decisions and Letters -> Pre-completed tax return -> Open pdf-file

If you haven't checked the information of the pre-completed tax return -> Check the information and make additions and corrections, if needed -> Submit -> Click: Open (pdf).

Note: If you do not have a pre-completed tax return yet because you just moved to Finland, then in this case you need to visit any nearby tax office and ask for a certificate which states that you have not been taxed in Finland for the last tax year. In Finnish language it is mentioned in the certificate as  ‘’Henkilöä ei ole verotettu Suomessa vuonna 20XX’’

Asset Verification

If the applicant has assets entered in the pre-filled tax return, additional information about the value of the assets must be submitted as an attachment to the application.

Shares and Investment funds

If the applicant's wealth consists of shares and/or investment funds, a written explanation of their market value at the time of application is required as an attachment to the application. The statement can be obtained, for example, from a bank dealing with shares or securities. or a screenshot from the online bank.

Condominium (an individually owned residential unit in a building or other residential units)

If the asset is a shared apartment, its resale price can be determined based on the average square footage prices of old apartment buildings published by Statistics Finland. The debt-free square meter prices according to apartment and house types can be found on the Statistics Finland website:

http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/ashi/tau.html

The resale price of a shared apartment can also be determined with a sales order, brokerage agreement or deed of sale received from a real estate agent, if the sale is made within a year.

Property

If the asset is real estate, the most recent real estate tax slip received from the tax authority, which shows the property's taxable value, is submitted as an attachment to the application.

If the taxable value according to the applicant's ownership share on the real estate tax ticket is below 20,000 euros, the taxable value of the property as such is taken into account. If the taxable value exceeds 20,000 euros, the applicant must submit, for example, a reliable report from a real estate agent on the resale price of the property at the time of application.

Liabilities

If the applicant has debts, written certificates must be submitted. The total debts of the applicant food court are deducted from the assets.

3. From non-EU citizens we need a copy of the passport and photo of the residence permit.

In addition to the above-mentioned compulsory attachments, you can send us also other attachments connected with your housing needs. Such attachments/certificates are pregnancy certificate, study certificate and copy of the temporary lease contract. 

Why do we need attachments?

For ARA-funded houses, tenant selection is based on ARA's criteria. We need documents from the applicants so that we can verify the information provided with the application.

To find out more about ARA's general selection criteria for residents read Aran Asukasvalintaopas.

Signing the Lease Agreement

After the apartment offer has been accepted and the required attachments have been submitted, you will receive a signing link by email for electronically signing the lease agreement. You need online banking credentials to sign the lease agreement. You can obtain online banking credentials by contacting your own bank's customer service.

Before signing electronically, check the lease agreement information and lease terms. After signing, you will receive the new tenant's information and the signed rental lease agreement to your email.

Once the rental agreement is signed, it is binding from the moment it is signed, and the lease agreement cannot be cancelled after that. After signing, the agreement termination period is one full calendar month according to the terms of the lease agreement.

Lease agreement for two main tenants: Both main tenants sign the lease electronically for their part. After both have signed, you will receive a confirmation message and a signed rental lease agreement by e-mail.

After signing the lease, you can start planning your move! Look the necessary information for moving:

Moving

Lease Agreement

The lease is either valid until further notice or fixed-term.

The lease agreement which is valid until further notice automatically terminates at the end of the month in which the tenant reaches the age of 35.

You can terminate the lease agreement at any time, by following our one (1) full calendar month termination notice period.

The duration of a fixed-term lease agreement is usually 3 months or 6 months. At the end of fixed-term lease agreement, the extension of the lease is considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Rental Security Deposit

In our apartments, the security deposit is an amount equivalent to 1-3 months' rent. The deposit must be paid before picking up the keys.

As for rental security deposit, we accept monetary security deposit and payment commitment issued by Kela or social services. The amount of Kela or Social service's payment commitment is two (2) times the amount of the monetary security deposit.

Lower deposit:

From time to time, Nuorisosäätiö has apartments marketing, where security deposit amount may have been reduced. You can access these apartments using the button below.

VACANT/available apartments

When will I receive an offer?

Nuorisosäätiö does not have a fixed time-based application queue in which apartments would be offered according to the application submission date, and therfore, we are unfortunately unable to provide an estimate waiting time.

Our apartments have a notice period of one calendar month, so the apartment availability situation will only be known about a month before the start of the new lease agreement. Because of this, the apartment availability sitaution changes every month.

Unfortunately, we do not accept appointments for matters related to housing applications. Tenant selection is entirely based on the information provided in the application, so contacting the rental service will not speed up the process of receiving an apartment offer.

Renewal Application

The housing application is valid for three months.

If your situation changes or you want to renew your application, please send us a new application.  An outdated application cannot be updated. The new application will automatically replace your old application. You will not receive a separate activation message for your application.

Apartments are not provided on a time basis. The most important thing is that your application is valid and the information in the application is correct.