Student Housing in Finland (HOAS and Beyond)

Student housing in Finland is one of the few genuinely affordable ways to live in an expensive housing market, and for many international students it is the difference between a manageable budget and a painful one. The catch is that the good options are run by non-profit foundations with limited stock, so the people who get them are usually the ones who applied early and understood how the system works. This guide explains who these foundations are, how applications are actually decided, what it costs, and the traps that catch newcomers.

What Student Housing Foundations Are

Most subsidised student housing in Finland is run by opiskelija-asuntosäätiöt (student housing foundations) — non-profit organisations tied to local universities and student unions. They are not commercial landlords. Their purpose is to provide affordable homes to students, which is why their rents undercut the private market and why eligibility is restricted to people who are actually studying.

The best-known is HOAS — the Helsingin seudun opiskelija-asuntosäätiö, the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region. According to HOAS, it operates in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen, the four municipalities of the greater Helsinki area where most international students end up. Every large university city has its own equivalent: Tampere has TOAS, Oulu has PSOAS, Turku has TYS, Jyväskylä has KOAS, and so on. They share the same broad model but each runs its own application system, prices, and rules, so you apply to the foundation that covers the city where you will study.

InfoFinland, the Finnish authorities' official information service for migrants, notes that student housing is also offered by some student unions, student associations, and other foundations beyond the main ones — and points to Suomen opiskelija-asunnot (Finnish Student Housing, soa.fi) as a national umbrella with links to the regional providers.

Who Is Eligible

The unifying rule across foundations is that you must be a genuine, full-time, degree-seeking student at a recognised institution in their area. HOAS, for example, states that to apply you must be a full-time student in a programme that leads to a degree, and your school must be in the Finnish capital area. Exchange students apply through a separate track (more on that below).

A few things follow from this:

• You generally cannot apply before you have a study place. Most foundations want confirmation of admission before they will process an application.
• You must keep studying to keep the home. InfoFinland states that to remain in student housing you must stay a full-time student and make progress in your studies. Foundations periodically ask for proof of enrolment.
• Doctoral students, part-timers, and people who have graduated often fall outside eligibility or face restrictions — check the specific foundation's rules.

Family apartments are available at many foundations for students with a spouse or children, with their own eligibility conditions.

How the Application Is Decided — There Is No Queue Number

This is the single most misunderstood part of the system, so it is worth being precise. HOAS does not use queue numbers. According to HOAS, applications are assessed on need: the urgency of the applicant's housing situation, the applicant's assets and financial situation, and the length of time they have already waited.

In practice that means two people who submit applications on the same day can get very different outcomes. Someone arriving from abroad with no other housing option and limited funds is treated as more urgent than someone who already has a place to stay. It also means there is no public ranking you can check to see "how close" you are — you wait until an offer arrives or does not.

HOAS also notes that it prioritises applicants who have not yet received an offer, particularly around the start of the autumn term (roughly August to October) and the spring term (January to February), when demand peaks.

Other foundations vary. Some do operate more conventional waiting lists where time-in-queue matters more directly. Read the rules of the specific foundation rather than assuming HOAS's needs-based logic applies everywhere.

Waiting Times and When to Apply

Expect to wait, sometimes a long time. HOAS and InfoFinland both describe waiting times ranging from a few weeks to over a year depending on the apartment type and the time of year. Shared-apartment rooms tend to move fastest; studios are the slowest because everyone wants their own space, and a studio queue can stretch well beyond a year.

The advice every official source repeats is the same: apply as soon as your study place is confirmed. For HOAS, the earliest you can apply is around four months before you need the apartment, so put a reminder in your calendar for the moment you have your acceptance letter. Applying the week before term starts, when you have just arrived, is the worst possible timing — you will be competing with everyone else who left it late, into the most contested period of the year.

While you wait, line up a temporary fallback: a short private sublet, a hostel, or a room booked through a housing portal. Our guide on how to find an apartment in Finland covers the private-market options and the scam red flags to watch for.

What It Costs

Student housing is cheaper than the private market, but "cheap" is relative in the Helsinki region. Rents depend heavily on the apartment type, the city, and the location relative to campus.

• A room in a shared apartment is the most economical option. Each tenant has their own lockable room and shares the kitchen and bathroom with one to three others.
• Studios cost more because you have the whole space to yourself, and they are the most competitive to get.
• Two-room and family apartments sit at the top of the range.

Prices change every year, so treat any figure you read second-hand with caution and check the live listings on the foundation's own site for the current rent. As a sense of scale, individual HOAS listings have shown rooms in shared apartments and studios spanning a wide band depending on size and area — confirm the exact rent on each listing before you accept.

What is included matters as much as the headline rent. HOAS apartments come with free internet, and many buildings have a shared sauna and laundry. Water and electricity are sometimes included and sometimes billed separately, so read each listing carefully — a "cheaper" apartment with separate utility charges can end up costing more than a slightly pricier all-inclusive one.

For a broader picture of monthly budgets — groceries, transport, and the rest — see our cost of living in Finland guide.

The Deposit

Here is a piece of good news that surprises people. According to HOAS, the deposit for most degree-student tenancy agreements starting on or after 1 June 2023 is 0 euros. You move in without locking up several hundred euros.

There are exceptions. HOAS requires a deposit from exchange students and from applicants with payment defaults. As of 2026, that deposit is 260 euros for a room in a shared apartment and 500 euros for other apartment types, according to HOAS. The deposit is a guarantee against unpaid rent or damage and cannot be used to cover your final month's rent.

Other foundations set their own deposit policies, and many private student landlords still ask for the standard one-to-three-months deposit common across the Finnish rental market. Always confirm the deposit before you accept an offer, and pay it through the official channel — for HOAS, a bank transfer before accepting, or a card payment through the MyHoas tenant portal after you register, which is useful if you are paying from abroad. Moving money internationally before you have a Finnish bank account is a common arrival headache; a multi-currency account such as Wise or Revolut can let you hold euros and pay the deposit without waiting on a Finnish bank, which itself usually needs your henkilötunnus (personal identity code) first.

Exchange Students: A Separate Track

If you are coming on an exchange rather than for a full degree, you usually do not apply the same way. HOAS runs a dedicated exchange-student process: you can apply for a HOAS exchange apartment if you are on an exchange programme at one of its partner schools with a campus in Helsinki, Espoo, or Vantaa, through a separate application system at apply.hoas.fi. Exchange apartments are typically furnished and include internet, with shared sauna and laundry.

In many cases your host university's international office or housing coordinator handles or guides the booking, and the deposit (the 500-euro figure above for most types) applies. Check the housing instructions from your specific Finnish university early — exchange housing is often allocated in fixed rounds tied to the semester calendar, and missing the round can leave you scrambling.

Housing Benefits: Manage Your Expectations

Many new arrivals assume Finland's housing support will cushion the rent. For most international students, it will not — at least not at first.

Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, runs two relevant benefits. The student housing supplement (opintotuen asumislisä) is tied to Finnish student financial aid, which most international degree students are not entitled to, so it is generally out of reach. The general housing allowance (yleinen asumistuki) is the broader benefit, but Kela states that people who move to Finland to study generally cannot receive it as new arrivals. You may qualify once you are considered to live in Finland permanently — usually after around one year — or if you have moved to Finland to work and are an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen.

The practical takeaway: budget as if you will pay your full rent yourself, especially for your first year. Check your own situation on Kela's site rather than assuming, because the rules turn on residence status and your reason for being in Finland, both of which differ from person to person.

Signing the Lease and Moving In

Once HOAS makes you an offer, it comes with a due date. According to HOAS, if you do not accept or reject the offer by that deadline, your application becomes passive and effectively expires — so watch your email closely after you apply. After you accept, HOAS verifies your eligibility against your study certificate, then sends an invitation to sign the tenancy agreement electronically. The agreement is confirmed once everyone has signed, and at that point it is binding — you cannot simply cancel it; you have to terminate it formally under residential lease law, with notice.

After signing you get access to the tenant portal (MyHoas for HOAS) to manage rent, report maintenance issues, and handle other housing matters.

Your tenancy is still a normal Finnish lease in legal terms. The same rules on notice periods, deposit returns, and repairs apply as in the private sector — our guides on understanding Finnish rental contracts and tenant rights in Finland walk through what to check before you sign and what protections you have once you move in.

A Realistic Plan

If you are heading to a Finnish university, the winning strategy is unglamorous but reliable:

1. Apply to the student housing foundation the day your admission is confirmed — earlier than feels necessary.
2. Cast a wider net than HOAS alone. Apply to the city's main foundation, but also check student-union housing and the private market in parallel.
3. Have a temporary plan for arrival week, because an offer may not land before you fly.
4. Verify every figure on the official site at the time you apply — rents, deposits, and benefit rules change, and this guide points you to the current pages rather than freezing numbers that will drift.

Do those four things and you turn Finland's affordable student housing from a gamble into a plan. Leave it until you land, and you may spend your first semester in a hostel watching the studio queue refuse to move.