Lappeenranta student housing foundation tackles unauthorised subletting

The Lappeenranta region student housing foundation LOAS is increasingly intervening in cases where international students accommodate friends or acquaintances in their apartments without permission, Yle reports. Rising student numbers, a shortage of housing and limited finances are driving the practice.

LOAS managing director Joonas Grönlund said the phenomenon has probably always existed, but has become more visible over the past few years. He attributed the increase partly to the growing number of students and said some international students do not have enough money to pay rent on their own.

LUT University’s Lappeenranta campus had about 6,400 university students in 2023 and 7,100 in 2025. The figures include both Finnish and international students.

Housing shortage has forced students to improvise

LUT is aware of the practice. Tanja Karppinen, a project manager in the university’s student services, said living in other people’s apartments began around two years ago, when Lappeenranta was facing a severe housing shortage.

“We bring in a large number of students, but there are not enough homes available in Lappeenranta,” Karppinen said.

Samatha Amaweera, who studies at LAB University of Applied Sciences, experienced the difficulty of finding student housing after moving to Lappeenranta in 2024. She waited about six months for a student apartment while renting from a private landlord.

LOAS is responding to increased demand by building new residential buildings. For some international students, however, the main obstacle is money.

Many students come to Finland expecting to finance their housing and living costs by working. Jobs are not easy to find, especially for those who do not speak Finnish, leaving some students unable to pay rent alone.

“When there is an emergency, people go where it is cheap and where they can manage,” Karppinen said.

Cases uncovered in several ways

Similar practices have been observed elsewhere in Finland. Some international students have also brought their families into shared student apartments.

LOAS identifies additional occupants through water consumption data, maintenance visits to apartments and tips from neighbours. It also monitors the resident register maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Grönlund said residents also openly advertise on social media that their apartments have room for two or three additional occupants.

LOAS has housing for more than 3,000 students in Lappeenranta. Only a small number of cases are formally identified each year because they are difficult to investigate, but Grönlund said there are at least dozens of cases annually when water consumption is taken into account.

Unauthorised occupants affect other residents because the increased water consumption is shared among all tenants. Grönlund described this as a significant additional cost for other students.

Building systems can also be strained when more people live in an apartment than it was designed for.