Buying a house in Finland: usually you buy shares — and that is your fiscal luck
A Finnish flat or terraced house is usually bought as shares in an asunto-osakeyhtiö, a housing company. That halves the transfer tax: 1.5% instead of 3% — but on the price including your share of the company's loan. If you buy a real house with land, the rule is: first the varainsiirtovero, then the lainhuuto within six months. The exemption for the first own home no longer exists since 2024.
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Yes, you can buy a house in Finland. Usually you then buy not real property but shares. A flat or terraced house almost always sits in an asunto-osakeyhtiö, a housing company, and your shares give you the right to that home.
That halves the transfer tax: 1.5 percent varainsiirtovero instead of 3 percent for a house with land. Watch two things:
- The finding at the Finnish Tax Administration Vero: that 1.5 percent is not levied on the asking price but on the velaton hinta, the price including your share of the housing company's loan.
- The exemption for the first own home, which older advice still counts on, no longer exists since 1 January 2024.
In your first year you don't buy. You rent, you get to know the city, and only then do you decide — why that order is fixed. This article is for the moment you are ready.
What do I pay on purchase, and when?
| Housing shares (flat, terraced house) | Real property (house with land) | |
|---|---|---|
| Varainsiirtovero | 1.5 % of the price plus your share of the company loan | 3 % of the purchase price |
| Return and payment | within 2 months of signing; through an agent you pay at the transfer | before you apply for the lainhuuto |
| Registration of ownership | no lainhuuto | lainhuuto within 6 months of signing |
| Late with the lainhuuto | not applicable | the tax goes up 20 % per started half year, up to double |
| Return late, up to 60 days | € 50 for an individual | € 50 for an individual |
If two of you buy, each buyer files their own return and each buyer pays their own share, with their own payment reference.
Why does the company loan count?
Because Vero levies the tax on the velaton hinta, the debt-free price. Vero works it out:
- a home has a sale price of € 60,000;
- the share of the company loan is € 20,000;
- the debt-free price is then € 80,000;
- the varainsiirtovero is 1.5 percent of € 80,000, so € 1,200.
It makes no difference whether you repay that loan at the purchase or pay it along monthly through your contribution to the company.
That is also the reason to read the company's documents as thoroughly as you view the home. You become a co-owner. You pay a monthly contribution, and the company's loans and plans help determine your housing costs.
For the return you need the deed of sale and sometimes a statement from the manager, the isännöitsijäntodistus. If you buy through an agent, the agent files the return for you. The agent gives you proof of the tax paid.
What changes if I buy a real house with land?
Then you buy real property, and there are two steps in a fixed order:
- First you file the varainsiirtovero return yourself and pay the 3 percent, even if you buy through an agent.
- Only then do you apply to the land survey, Maanmittauslaitos, for the lainhuuto: the registration of your ownership. That must happen as soon as possible and at the latest six months after signing the deed of sale.
Only with that registration can you use the house as collateral for a loan.
In two cases you do not have to make that application yourself:
- If you conclude the purchase digitally in the land survey's Kiinteistövaihdanta service, the application goes along automatically. In practice you then have to arrange the return and payment when signing.
- You can agree that the kaupanvahvistaja, the public purchase witness, applies for the lainhuuto on your behalf.
Does the first-home exemption still exist?
No. Vero writes that the exemption lapsed on 1 January 2024: whoever buys a first home in 2024 or later pays varainsiirtovero. Only whoever signed the binding deed before that date can still fall under it. Advice about "buying your first home tax-free" in Finland is therefore out of date.
What do I pay every year after that?
The owner of real property pays the annual kiinteistövero, the Finnish property tax. The amount depends on the taxable value and on the percentage the municipality sets. Whoever is the owner on 1 January pays for the year.
The decision comes in March. If the details are wrong, you correct them before the date in the decision; in 2026 that was 14 April. If you buy during the year, you only report changes the following spring.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Finland.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- Vero — the varainsiirtovero, 3% for real property and 1.5% for housing shares — vero.fi
- Vero — buyer of housing shares, two months and the price including the company loan — vero.fi
- Vero — buyer of real property, first the tax and then the lainhuuto within six months — vero.fi
- Vero — the first-home exemption, lapsed on 1 January 2024 — vero.fi
- Vero — late filing or payment of the varainsiirtovero — vero.fi
- Suomi.fi / Maanmittauslaitos — applying for lainhuuto within six months of the kauppakirja — suomi.fi
- Vero — the kiinteistövero, for whoever owns the property on 1 January — vero.fi
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