An article in the Finnish news today was the results of a survey and study that looked at the difference of home ownership between Finns and foreigners. And unsurprisingly, foreigners are lagging well behind. For example, in the middle-income brackets, most Finns own a home, but only one in five foreigners do - eighty percent are renting. But even in the affluent bracket at the top end, Finns are far more likely to own than rent, in comparison to their foreign counterparts. However, according to the study, most foreigners want to own a home and not rent
The study found that foreigners saw their living situations shaped by limited finances, insecure employment and Finnish immigration policy.
Demographic forecasts for Helsinki, Turku, Jyväskylä, Tampere and Oulu all rest heavily on growth in the foreign-language population. With most foreigners renting, this means urban housing markets will tilt steadily towards rental in the decades ahead.
As you can see, the article, although short and bare bones, predicts that nothing will change to improve the situation to own a home for foreigners, and instead, they will encourage Finns to have investment properties to rent to them instead.
As one of the home owning (not outright) foreigners in the country, I get why so many don't buy here because there is very little support and it seems harder to get a good deal on mortgages. When I bought my first place in Finland, a small apartment, I had to get approval from the body corporate to allow me to buy, because I was foreign. I was not some Russian oligarch trying to circumvent sanctions, just a guy looking to buy a place where I had lived and worked for five years, and had permanent residency.
And I was buying it half with my girlfriend.
It was a big step for me personally and a couple years later after we broke up, I bought my girlfriend out of it and it became mine - and mostly the bank's. A couple apartments and now a house later, and through a lot of struggle and a mass of work, I feel that I should be considered some kind of immigration success story of a kind, where someone comes from abroad (and from outside the EU) and makes a life here, and builds a family.
But I will never be Finnish.
Even if I did the citizenship and passed, I know I will never be considered a Finn and I will still face all of the same challenges that other foreigners face, where I don't look the same, don't talk the same, and don't have the same social capital that a Finn gets at birth. It doesn't matter what I do, or any other foreigner does, at the end of the day, we will be treated differently. It will be harder for us, more expensive, and take more effort to "be like a Finn" in the country. Even if we are making the country money.
But it is going to get interesting in the coming years because the only reason Finland and many other countries are growing, is because of immigration from countries that have more than the replacement birth rate. The birth rate in Finland has dropped from 2.72 births per woman (which is above replacement meaning the population is growing, to 1.26, which is well below the needed replacement rate of ~2.1 per woman.
And while everyone cries about all the foreigners coming into the country changing the culture and taking up air and the like, remember that the entire economy is built upon increasing growth, and that comes through increasing expenditure, which comes through increasing populations. It of course doesn't have to be this way, but that is the way it is set up currently. For instance, the population can keep shrinking and at some point, without building another house, every Finn could own two homes.
Though there would be no one to rent the other.
Australia is going through a housing crisis at the moment, with not enough housing for all the immigrants flooding in and taking up all the space apparently, but it has a very strong investment market for housing. If the immigrants stop, yes, housing prices will fall, but will people then be happy?
And for a little bit of context, the population per square kilometre in Finland is 18 people. In the US it is 37 people. And in Australia, it is.... 3.5 people. Yet, they are building houses like this.
The Australian Dream?
Where the fuck are you meant to have a barbie and play backyard cricket?
But you see, none of this is about making life better for people, improving wellbeing, or increasing the opportunity for everyone. It is about the economy. It is about maximising profits. It is about ROI. It is about squeezing the most out of people possible and crushing them until there is nothing left to give. Everyone - not just foreigners, locals too.
Immigrants are looking for a better life of some kind, but they are economic and political tools of the system. The governments don't care, the corporations don't care, they are just looking to maximise at any cost, whether that be to wellbeing, culture, or the health of the communities. And, the locals are being used as well, not only due to the profit maximisation, but as political vehicles of the various agendas looking to seize more power.
FIN
AUS
USA
What is causing the housing shortages?
So much of the conversation is put on immigration these days, without really questioning that the only reason immigration exists, is because of lines on maps and mental constructs. In a different world in a galaxy far, far away, they might not give two shits about migration of people at all. It might be a natural part of the populations balancing to provide the "human" (galaxy far, far away remember) resources needed at the time and location. Or just because people want to move. Maybe, there are no immigrants there, because there are no imaginary borders.
Ownership is essential.
From an investment perspective, we should be looking to own what we think will go up in value. However, from a human perspective, ownership gives us skin in the game, plus a place in the community. A place to care for, a place to hang a hat, raise a family and be proud of in some way. We should be encouraging ownership of everything that makes a community strong, not selling our communities to the highest bidder looking to maximise their investment profits.
And that isn't just about housing.
But that is another, larger conversation again.
Taraz
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