Apartments for next to nothing. People in Finland even give them away for free

Crawled by the capitalism of the 1990s, Poles know that there are no free lunches or dinners. The rest know well that there are no free apartments. And certainly not without a catch hidden in the contract.

Meanwhile, residents of the eastern region of Finland officially offer apartments for sale for 1 euro or even for free. There is no hidden catch in the contract and announcement – there is a quite obvious reason: Russia’s proximity.

Geopolitics and the real estate market. Finns are getting rid of real estate in one region

Kuhmo it a charming Finnish town located in the Kainuu region, “in the heart of the wild taiga” – as it advertises itself. The main attraction of this eastern region of Finland is nature and its observation, especially bears, wolves, wolverines and birds of prey from well-hidden hiding places. In Kuhmo approximately 7.3 thousand people currently live there, while in 2010 there were approximately 9.5 thousand people living there.

There is also one in the town Winter War Museum, which commemorates the heavy fighting in this area during the war between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940. The distance from Kuhmo to the border with Russia is no more than 30 km, and the Kainuu region itself shares a border with Russia for about 120 km.

It was the residents of Kuhmo who offered a studio apartment for 1 euro and well-kept, 59-square-meter apartment – ​​even for free. And there are still no takers. As tvn24.pl describes the case, there has been a decline in demand for real estate on the Finnish market for over three years. Buyers are cautious “due to uncertainty related to the global and Finnish geopolitical and economic situation.”

The costs of maintaining the premises are high. Especially when no one lives there

Relations between Finland and Russia are very tense. This is a direct result of Russian aggression against Ukraine and Helsinki’s decision to abandon neutrality and join NATO.. In response to Russia’s hybrid war and attempts to create a migration crisis, Finland has also closed all land border crossings and, like Poland before, is building a fence on its eastern border.

Tuomas Viljamaa, president of the Finnish Association of Real Estate Agents, explains in the “Ilta-Sanomat” daily that there will probably be more and more housing offers with low prices because it is not profitable for owners to maintain an unoccupied property in the face of monthly costs. – You have to pay rent, taxes, fees. The owner of the apartment may come to the conclusion that since he has no way to cover it himself, it will be easier to get rid of the property, even for free, explained Jouni Korhonen, a local real estate agent.