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Hitas


Hitas is a system for regulating the price and quality of apartments in Helsinki, Finland. The system is intended to provide affordable owned apartments to Helsinkians. Apartments within the Hitas system are set a maximum selling price already when the lot is signed over for construction, and this maximum selling price may not be exceeded even when selling the apartment afterwards. The system includes approximately 18 thousand apartments, all of them in Helsinki.

Hitas regulated apartments are generally a little less expensive than those on the free market, depending on the location and date of building. All Hitas apartments are situated on lots rented from the city.

The current market index was taken into use on 1 March 2004. Before this, the Hitas maximum price was calculated by a specific Hitas price index. However, the index change had a negative effect on the price of apartments built from 1988 to 1990, and so a complaint was made about this to the city council and the legal warden of the Parliament of Finland. The city council decided on 29 March 2005 to extend the use of the old Hitas index parallel to the market index longer than originally planned, and make changes to the calculations according to voiced complaints.

Exceeding the maximum selling price can result in compulsory purchase of the apartment, to the loss of the buyer. Such action is taken a couple of times per year. The owner of a Hitas apartment is entitled to sell furniture at a decent price, but the price of the furniture may not exceed its real value. Also renovations and improvements to the apartment, such as a glassed terrace, might increase the Hitas price. The owner must provide a written record of the improvements.

Repairs to the apartment can also increase the Hitas price. According to the new price index, the value of the repairs must be at least 100 per square metre for them to have an effect on the price. Any possible corporate loan left over is deducted from the maximum selling price, if it has not been paid yet for the apartment.

The seller of the apartment must provide a premade and confirmed calculation of the Hitas maximum selling price to the buyer on demand.

The selling of the Hitas apartments has been criticised as old-fashioned. In April 2010, the city of Helsinki sold one hundred new apartments in three corporations in Hermanni for about 3000 € per square metre, 400 € below the average price of old apartments in the neighbourhood. The apartments were only available for sale in the housing cooperative premises in Pasila, in a queueing order of buyers having come to the premises. Some people even spent several days in front of the premises queuing for new apartments.


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