National Land Survey seeks register of home sale prices

The National Land Survey of Finland wants to establish a state-maintained register of completed apartment sale prices, Yle reports. Creating the public register would require an amendment to the law.

Director Janne Murtoniemi said comprehensive price information on all apartment sales in Finland would be important. The proposal follows the removal of collected home sale price data from an online service maintained by the Ministry of the Environment, leaving consumers to search for the information themselves.

The National Land Survey, an agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, already maintains extensive registers containing information on properties and apartments. Murtoniemi said a register of sale prices would be a natural addition and could be built on the existing system at a reasonable cost.

Under the proposed legal framework, access to the register and the information available would be regulated in detail. Murtoniemi said this would address concerns related to privacy and data collection.

He said the law would need to grant the authorities the right to collect sale price data. He suggested that planning for the new register could be included in the government programme of the next government.

Murtoniemi said the reform would benefit the parties involved in transactions, homeowners and society as a whole.