Y-Säätiö sells 900 subsidised rental homes to investor

Finland’s Y-Säätiö has sold about 900 state-supported rental homes to property investment company Sijoitusasunnot.com over the past two years, Yle reports. The foundation says it needs the proceeds to build affordable homes and renovate existing ones.

Y-Säätiö is Finland’s largest nationwide state-supported rental housing provider and offers homes, among others, to people on low incomes. Its chief executive, Teija Ojankoski, described the sales as a strategy for the foundation’s survival, saying reduced state support has made it necessary to strengthen its finances.

Residents in Hyvinkää said they were worried after learning that their homes had been sold. Sijoitusasunnot.com buys whole apartment buildings and sells individual flats to housing investors, sometimes after renovations and sometimes without them. One resident, Satu Brunfeldt, said she feared losing her home, which was built in 1950 and needs extensive repairs.

State-supported rental homes are subject to rules limiting rents and restricting sales until a set period has ended. In some cases, landlords need a state exemption to sell before those restrictions expire. Once they are lifted, a new owner can set rents and sell the homes without those limits.

Applications for exemptions reviewed by Yle say that some properties have vacant apartments and require major repairs. Some landlords have also cited weak finances or said renovations would not be economically viable. Y-Säätiö’s application for the Hyvinkää buildings said it could not afford the extensive improvements they needed.

Other state-supported landlords have also sold properties to Sijoitusasunnot.com in recent years. These include Tampereen vuokratalosäätiö, which sold the company 99 homes this year, as well as Mikalo, Orimattilan asunnot and NAL-asunnot. Yle reports that Sijoitusasunnot.com’s business is profitable.