Share-based apartment (osakehuoneisto / asunto-osake)

When you buy a share-based apartment (osakehuoneisto), you do not buy the walls or the lot. You buy the shares that give you the right to control a specific apartment in a housing company. The property itself is owned by the housing company (asunto-osakeyhtiö), and you are one of its shareholders. Apartments in blocks of flats and terraced houses in Finland are almost always sold this way.

This settles two things tied to money and law. The sale is governed by the Housing Transactions Act (asuntokauppalaki), which sets out, among other things, liability for defects and the time limits for defect notices. The transfer tax is 1.5% of the purchase price (different rules may apply to a first-time buyer, so check your own situation). The tax is calculated on the debt-free price, meaning the purchase price plus the debt share allocated to the apartment.

In practice, always check the property manager’s certificate (isännöitsijäntodistus) before the deal. It tells you the apartment’s debt share, the monthly charge (yhtiövastike), the housing company’s finances, and any upcoming renovations such as a pipe renovation (putkiremontti). These directly affect your monthly costs and what you pay on top of the deal.

The point of comparison is owning real property, where you own the lot and the building directly, the sale is governed by the Land Code (maakaari), and the transfer tax is higher. In a share-based apartment, responsibility for maintaining the building is split between you and the housing company according to the articles of association.