Vaasa’s housing shortage leaves new workers scrambling for homes

Vaasa’s shortage of affordable rental homes is making it difficult for new workers to find somewhere to live, Yle reports, as new jobs and a planned data centre add to housing demand.

Nearly 3,000 jobs have been created in the region this decade. Thousands of workers are also expected to come to the area to build Microsoft’s planned data centre, though the company says they will not all arrive at once. Student demand and population growth, including immigration, are also putting pressure on housing.

Joel Räsänen, whose Helppomajoitus company finds accommodation for temporary workers in more than 10 Finnish municipalities, says Vaasa is among the country’s most difficult places to find a home. He says rentals within 30 kilometres of the city can be taken almost immediately.

Räsänen is concerned that landlords may charge higher rents when companies rent homes for their workers, putting them beyond the reach of ordinary families.

Netta Salmi experienced the shortage after accepting a job in Vaasa and moving from Kokkola. She searched for a rental throughout the summer and received an apartment from Pikipruuk just a week before her new job began. She moved in the day before starting work.

Salmi had feared she might not find a home in time. Her backup plan was to stay on friends’ sofas or in short-term accommodation. Without a car, she was looking for a small rental in central Vaasa, the kind of reasonably priced home that the city’s housing manager, Jonas Nylen, says is in short supply.

Vaasa built about 350 homes a year in the 2010s, but construction has since fallen to around 50 a year. No new homes were completed in 2024 or 2025, Nylen says. Both privately financed and state-supported apartment construction are in an exceptionally difficult position, he says.

The decline is part of a national trend. The Centre for State-Subsidised Housing Construction, Varke, used to support an average of 7,700 completed homes a year; that figure is now about 2,000. The interest-subsidy allocation was 2.25 billion euros in 2024, but is set at 500 million euros for 2027. That sum could support the construction of 2,000 homes and renovation of another 2,000.

Funding for investment grants for special groups has also fallen, from between 60 million and 120 million euros in previous years to 15 million euros a year. Varke’s support accounted for 45 per cent of housing construction starts last year.

Varke’s senior specialist Tanja Mattila says funding follows the government’s spending plan, which currently prioritises major growth centres, particularly the Helsinki region. Decisions also take account of vacant homes and population growth. Mattila says Vaasa has received support for student housing.