The Finnish Property Market 2013 1
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The Finnish Property Market 2013 1 The Finnish Property Market 2013 The Finnish Property The Finnish Property Market 2013 Contents Preface 7 Basic facts about Finland 8 1. The Finnish economy 8 1.1 The structure of the economy 8 1.2 Finnish public finances 10 1.3 Outlook for the Finnish economy: back to growth path in 2013? 11 1.4 Finland’s international competitiveness remains strong in most comparisons 13 2. Institutional aspects of the Finnish property market 14 2.1 Two forms of property ownership 14 2.2 Market practices of property investment and renting 16 2.3 Planning 19 2.4 Taxation in Finland 20 2.5 Legislation for indirect property investment 24 3. Structure and players in the Finnish property market 25 3.1 Ownership structure 25 3.2 Real estate service sector 32 4. Property sectors: investment performance, market structure and practices 35 4.1 Property investment market in 2013 35 4.2 The office market 37 4.3 The retail market 41 4.4 Rental residential sector 44 4.5 Industrial / logistics market 48 4.6 Hotels 50 5. Property markets in different regions – outlook for 2013 51 5.1 The Helsinki metropolitan area 51 5.1.1 Helsinki 53 5.1.2 Espoo 57 5.1.3 Vantaa 58 5.2 Other growth centres: Tampere, Oulu, Turku, Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Lahti 60 The sponsors of this publication 64 Key terminology 67 Preface The Finnish Property Market 2013 aims to satisfy the SEB Merchant Banking, Skanska and Sveafastigheter. Also, information needs of international investors and other RAKLI – the Finnish Association for Property Owners and players interested in the Finnish property market. KTI Construction Clients - the City of Helsinki and Invest in Finland publishes this report annually in March. Finland have provided financial support for this report. KTI wishes to thank the sponsors. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the Finnish property market structure and practices. KTI Finland can KTI Finland also publishes a monthly electronic newsletter, also provide more detailed information and analysis on the Finnish Property Monthly, which covers the latest news from individual sub-markets for specific needs, upon request. the Finnish property market. To receive this newsletter via e-mail, please send an e-mail with “subscribe” as the subject This publication is sponsored by 10 companies representing heading to [email protected]. the Finnish property investment, development, management and finance markets. The sponsoring companies include The report is also available in PDF format at www.kti.fi. We CapMan Real Estate, CBRE Finland, IVG Polar, KIINKO Real hope you find this worthwhile reading. Estate Education, NCC, Newsec, Ovenia, Sato Corporation, Hanna Kaleva 7 KTI Finland KTI Finland is an independent research organisation and service company providing information and research services for the Finnish real estate industry. KTI maintains extensive databases on returns, rents, transactions, operating costs and customer satisfaction measures in the Finnish property market. Based on these databases, various kinds of benchmarking and analysis services can be provided. For more information, please call +358 20 7430 130 or visit www.kti.fi The Finnish Property Market 2013 The Finnish Property Basic facts about Finland 1. The Finnish economy Geography 1.1 The structure of the economy Total area 338,000 square kilometres The Finnish economy has gone through a profound Distances 1,160 km north to south, 540 km east structural change within the past few decades. Finland has to west transformed itself from a society largely based on primary People production and agriculture to one of the richest and most Population 5.43 million multifaceted economies in the world. The deregulation Density: 17.6 inhabitants per square of the financial markets in 1980s, as well as reforms made kilometre Uusimaa region (southern Finland): following the deep recession in the early 1990s, contributed 222.6 per km2 to this transformation. Lappi region (northern Finland): Private services currently account for about half of the 2 per km2 Finnish gross domestic production, and are thus the biggest Languages Two official languages: sector in the economy. Their share has increased constantly Finnish, spoken by 90.0% while that of primary production and industry has decreased. Swedish, spoken by 5.4% However, in international comparison, businesses in the People with foreign origin 4.8% of services sector have developed rather slowly, and their share population of exports in particular remains rather small. Therefore, Religions Lutheran 77.3% exploiting the export potential of services is regarded as one Orthodox 1.1% important factor in strengthening the structure of Finnish Capital city Helsinki, 604,000 inhabitants economy. Helsinki region, 1.4 million inhabitants comprising Helsinki and 13 neighbouring municipalities – Espoo and Vantaa being the biggest “Private services are the Other Espoo, 257,000 biggest sector in the important cities Tampere, 217,000 Vantaa, 205,000 economy” Oulu, 191,000 Turku, 180,000 Jyväskylä, 133,000 Industrialisation started in Finland later than in most other Kuopio, 105,000 Lahti, 103,000 OECD countries, but has been very rapid. Due to its significance in the Finnish exports, industrial production Economy plays an important role in the economy. After the economic GDP per capita €35,173 (2011) recession in early 1990s, electronic industries developed Most important Metal and engineering products rapidly and are currently one of the three main industrial industries Forest industry products Chemical industry products sectors, together with the traditionally strong forestry 8 Electronics and electrotechnical and metal industries. The share of electronic industries goods has decreased since 2008. In recent years, the importance Currency Euro (since 2002) of chemical industries has increased both in terms of total History and Independent democracy since 1917 production and their share of exports. governance The share of foreign trade in the Finnish economy has Member of the European Union increased significantly during the past few decades, due to since 1995 changes in the structure of the economy. The international Head of State President of Republic, Sauli Niinistö competitiveness of Finnish industrial production was (since 2012) improved by the severe recession in the early 1990s, which Parliament One chamber, 200 members, elected forced corporations to institute structural reforms in terms for 4 years. Current parliament of increasing both cost competitiveness and productivity in elected in 2011. Biggest parties: order to survive. During the past couple of years, however, National Coalition Party (44 seats), the Finnish exporting industries have faced challenges with The Social Democratic Party (42), The Finns Party (39), The Center regard to their international competitiveness. To deal with Party (35) these challenges, industries are endeavouring towards a higher degree of specialisation and value-adding processes. The Finnish Property Market 2013 The Finnish Property Finnish economic structure,% 2011 2010 2005 2000 1995 1990 1985 1980 1975 0 20 40 60 80 100 % ■ Primary production ■ Manufacturing ■ Construction ■ Public services ■ Private services Source: Statistics Finland Services currently account for around 25% of all exports. In 2012, the exports of services totalled some €22 billion. The exported services are dominated by business services “Exports account for requiring high-tech know-how and engineering skills. 40% of the Finnish In 1990, exports accounted for only 22% of the Finnish GDP” GDP, whereas at its peak in 2008, its share amounted to 47%. Due to the global recession, the share of exports decreased to about 37% in 2009, and returned to a moderate growth path in 2010. In 2012, the volume of exports decreased The main target countries for Finnish exports include slightly and their share of GDP remains below 40%. Exports Sweden, Germany and Russia. Some 56% of the total exports are expected to increase slightly in 2013 and accelerate in of goods go to EU-countries. 2014 – provided that world trade will gather the expected momentum. Main components of demand Volume index 1990=100, seasonally adjusted Exports Consumption Investment Total demand 9 500 400 300 200 100 0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Source: Statistics Finland The Finnish Property Market 2013 The Finnish Property Photo: NCC / Sini Pennanen 1.2 Finnish public finances clearly above the EU average (European Economy 8/2012, Fiscal Sustainability Report). The gap has deteriorated Compared to most other European countries, Finnish public rapidly during the past few years, as the government debt finances are relatively strong and well-balanced. Finland has increased and structural balance of the economy has is, together with Luxemburg, the only euro country that weakened. has constantly fulfilled the criteria of the EU Stability and Growth Pact, both in terms of the general government debt as well as government budget deficit. The global financial turmoil has, however, increased “Determined actions the challenges faced by the Finnish public finances. The are needed to balance government budget has remained in deficit since 2009, the public finances” which means that the general government debt continues increasing. In 2012, the deficit amounted to about 3.6% of GDP, and is estimated to be about 3.0% in 2013. General government gross debt currently stands at 53.2% of GDP. The current government’s programme includes plenty of balancing actions for public finances, but as the economic environment has worsened significantly after the programme’s introduction in 2011, new measures are “Finland still maintains currently discussed in order to sustain economic stability. its AAA-rating” Both changes in taxation as well as cuts in social services will probably be needed in order to ensure the balance in public 10 finances. Despite the challenging economic environment, Finland A major part of the comprehensive Finnish social is one of the few euro countries that still maintains its services is provided by municipalities, including education, “AAA” rating in Standard & Poor’s ratings.