Finland

Residential pricing stayed weak into late-2025: Statistics Finland reported old dwellings in housing companies down -2.0% y/y in Nov 2025 (six largest towns -3.6%, outside large towns +0.7%) and down -2.4% y/y in Oct 2025 (six largest towns -4.2%). Segment nuance: detached-house prices in Q4 2024 were down -3.1% y/y nationwide and transactions -7.9% y/y, but large towns saw +2.9% while areas outside large towns fell -4.9% (continued geographic polarisation). Forward-looking signal: Nordea downgraded its 2025 home-price forecast to -0.5% and expects +2% in 2026 as interest rates ease, but emphasises oversupply and long selling times. Volume can lead prices: KVKL reported 2025 transaction counts up 10.7% vs 2024, consistent with a recovery first in liquidity and later in pricing.

Search/discovery: Alma Media launched travel-time search in the Etuovi app and explicitly links marketplace development to digitalisation, data and AI; however, public disclosure on specific AI models and their performance is limited. Transactions: the National Land Survey's Property Transaction Service enables electronic drafting/signing of deeds and related applications (including mortgage actions) using Suomi.fi e-Identification; Nordea markets digital closings as faster and notary-free, with title registration initiated automatically when using the service. Built-environment data: the Ministry of the Environment's Construction Act entered into force on 1 Jan 2025 and is positioned as supporting digitalisation; provisions on building design in data model format and machine-readable data enter into force on 1 Jan 2026, likely accelerating proptech/AI tooling around permitting, energy/carbon and data interoperability.

Governance model: integrity and consumer outcomes are shaped by consumer-protection enforcement and brokerage rules rather than a single 'listing regulator'. Consumer Ombudsman/FCCA oversight targets misleading marketing, and brokerage businesses must meet statutory requirements and register before operating. Marketplace risk surface: peer-to-peer classifieds (e.g., Tori.fi and Oikotie) broaden supply but can increase exposure to low-quality or fraudulent postings; market participants increasingly rely on strong authentication and bank-grade digital signing/records (via the Property Transaction Service) to reduce disputes and fraud. (Finland-wide public statistics on listing fraud incidence are limited.) Data/privacy: portals and broker CRMs must comply with GDPR under the Data Protection Ombudsman, influencing ad targeting, consent management and retention policies.

Portal consolidation baseline: in 2020 Sanoma divested Oikotie (multi-vertical classifieds) to Schibsted; Finnish media noted Schibsted already owned Tori.fi, creating a strong horizontal-marketplace stack competing with Alma's housing marketplaces (Etuovi, Vuokraovi, Toimitilat, Nettimokki). Investment-market liquidity swing: KTI reported Finland's property transaction volume fell to EUR 2.2bn in 2024 (-18% y/y), but Newsec reported Q2 2025 volumes of EUR 1.0bn and highlighted major residential portfolio trades (e.g., Kojamo's EUR 242m sale to Apollo-managed funds and Avant Capital Partners) and forecast 2025 total volumes around EUR 4bn.

Construction/permits: the Ministry of the Environment's Construction Act entered into force on 1 Jan 2025; time limits for permit processing, carbon-footprint calculation and provisions on data-model / machine-readable submissions take effect on 1 Jan 2026, pushing the sector toward standardised digital permitting and data pipelines. Lending guardrails: FIN-FSA kept the housing loan cap at its statutory standard level through 2025 (90% for most residential mortgages; 95% for first-home loans), keeping leverage constraints stable even as rates eased. Supervision architecture: a new Permit and Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto) started on 1 Jan 2026, taking over tasks from several authorities; this is a structural regulatory shift to monitor for process and reporting changes.