A prospective buyer examining a pamphlet during a flat viewing in Turku in October 2024. Kiinteistömaailma, the largest real estate agency in Finland, on Tuesday revealed that it had a hand in finding new owners or tenants for a total of 830 properties in January, signalling a 23-per-cent rise from the previous year. (Anni Savolainen – Lehtikuva)
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KIINTEISTÖMAAILMA, the largest real estate agency chain in Finland, has given currency to hopes that sliding interest rates have given a jolt to the long-sluggish real estate market.
Kiinteistömaailma on Tuesday revealed that it had a hand in finding new owners for 613 and new tenants for 217 properties in January, representing a surge of 23 per cent from January 2024. Only four of the properties sold with the help of the chain were new-built properties and the rest old owner-occupied homes or properties.
In January 2024, the chain brokered the sales of 480 old and 19 new-built properties.
Mika Laurikainen, the managing director of Kiinteistömaailma, stated in a press release that although the company was expecting the figures to improve from the unusually quiet first month of last year, the robust growth in old home sales came as a “bit of a surprise”.
“The January growth, which was largely achieved with the sales of old homes, marks the continuation of a trend seen in real estate markets for the past six months,” he remarked.
Statistics Finland will publish its data on the market for the first month of the year at the end of February.
The expectation is that the market will continue to recover on the back of disinflation and sliding interest rates – the 12-month Euribor fell from 2.44 to 2.35 per cent between Monday and Tuesday. Finnish consumers, though, may be reluctant to enter the market over concerns about the employment situation.
Kiinteistömaailma on Monday reported that it expects to at least double its growth rate from last year to eight per cent in 2025. OP Koti, the real estate division of OP Financial Group, predicted recently that the real estate markets should return close to normal levels during the course of this year, reinvigorated by lower interest rates.
SP Koti, the real estate arm of Savings Bank Finland, expects a quiet start to the year – not dissimilarly to last year.
Jukka Rantanen, the managing director of SP Koti, estimated last week that the challenging labour market situation, rising unemployment and prospect of strikes will cause uncertainty in many households. The recovery of real estate markets, he added, will not click into full gear until consumer confidence has rebounded.
Statistics Finland’s latest consumer confidence indicator suggests that pessimism remains widespread, with consumers planning fewer-than-usual home purchases in the next 12 months.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
