After five years of looking at white walls, Sander Ramboer and Claire Shaw decided that they had enough. They took the paint rollers in their hands and added a little colour to the bedroom and living room walls. 

”It’s great to be able to paint the walls whenever you like”, says Shaw. 

They also began to invest more in furnishings, knowing that they would be comfortable in this apartment for a long time. 

A loan requires a residence permit, a Finnish social security number and at least a temporary address in Finland. 

”We avoided purchasing any extravagant furniture before because we thought that we would move house soon”, says Ramboer. 

Now, with a home of their own, the situation has changed. Ramboer, who moved to Finland from Belgium, and Shaw, who is from the United States, bought their own apartment in Alppiharju in summer 2023. 

Criteria for foreign persons to get a home loan 

”A foreign person can buy a home with a loan in Finland, but the process involves a few special terms and conditions”, says Marjukka Varis, Sales Director at OP Uusimaa. 

She leads a team that grants home loans to people moving from another country to Finland.

To begin with, a residence permit, a Finnish social security number and at least a temporary address in Finland are required. 

”For example, if someone wishes to buy a holiday home in Finland but does not intend to move to or work in Finland, it is a good idea to get financing from the person’s permanent country of residence”, says Varis. 

Valkoinen mies ja nainen keittiössä selät vastakkain, nainen hymyilee oranssissa t-paidassa ja katsoo taakse lautanen kädessä, miehellä sininen paita.
Shaw and Ramboer like their home located in Alppiharju, Helsinki. Their friends and an agent helped them to interpret the documents of the home, which were written in Finnish.

For a foreign person to be granted credit, they must have a sufficient connection with Finland. There are several reasons for this. 

Banks have an obligation to know and recognise their customers and verify their identity. For example, a customer would be anonymous to a bank without a personal identity code, and no services could be opened. 

For Ramboer and Shaw, this was not a problem as they had both lived in Finland for a long time while applying for a home loan. 

An unforgettable date 

In 2018, Claire Shaw came to Oulu to study and moved to Helsinki in the following year to do her doctoral thesis at Aalto University. 

In 2019, Ramboer started working in the VATT Institute for Economic Research in Helsinki. 

He lived in Etu-Töölö while Shaw lived in Taka-Töölö. They met on a Tinder date. Shaw thought there was something special about Ramboer, something so special that the other dates were quite special. 

I called Sander and said that I knew we had just met but asked if he would like to come to the hospital.

Shaw was playing rugby and hurt her jaw, which required stitches, and she went to the hospital for treatment. She did not know anyone else in Helsinki other than her teammates – and Ramboer. 

”I called Sander and said that I knew we had just met but asked if he would like to come to the hospital. I had a thick layer of bandage around my head and it was actually quite embarrassing”, says Shaw. 

”She never got to go on a date with anyone else!” says Ramboer and laughs. 

At first, the couple lived in separate rental apartments, until they moved together to Hakaniemi. In 2022, they started to search for an owner-occupied home. 

”We thought that we no longer wanted to pay rent to another person. And we enjoy living in Finland, so having our own home was a smart decision by all accounts, an investment”, says Shaw. 

Different countries have different practices for buying homes 

According to Varis, people moving to Finland from other countries have a great deal of questions regarding the purchase of a home. The questions relate, for example, to what obligations are involved in buying a home from a housing company and what kind of insurance is advisable. 

”The practices in many countries differ to those in Finland, even regarding interest rates: we have many more options than in other countries.”

In Finland, first-time home buyers can get a loan when they have saved five per cent of the home’s price as a down payment, whereas the requirement is normally ten per cent. 

For some, it may come as a surprise that if you own or have already owned an apartment in another country, you are no longer a first-time home buyer in Finland. 

Valkoinen nainen ja mies sohvalla vaaleasävyisessä olohuoneessa, seinällä kaksi taulua, miehellä on käsi naisen ympärillä, he hymyilevät.

Buying a home was made easier for the couple by the fact that both had lived in Finland for a long time. Their parents helped them with finances. 

The bank can offer 100% financing as a paid additional guarantee, but this includes its own criteria, such as a permanent residence permit. 

The fact that many official sites are only in Finnish and maybe in Swedish is also a cause for questions. 

”The customer may not even know how to ask certain things, so the bank must be very alert during loan negotiations and discussions to ensure that the customer knows for sure what they are doing”, says Varis. 

According to Varis, a great deal of people are moving to Finland, especially from India. Due to the global situation, fewer people are moving from Russia than before. 

Security with a familiar bank 

Ramboer and Shaw found their current home last summer. One important criterion was that the home should include a sauna – they both love saunas. 

”But when we moved in, we realised that the housing company also includes a sauna. If we had realised that, having our own sauna may not have been so important”, says Ramboer. 

They did not have any problems in getting a loan. They had saved up money and their parents also provided financial assistance. Shaw had been a customer of OP ever since she moved to Finland and felt secure cooperating with a familiar bank. 

The language barrier only came up when investigating the history of the new home and building. 

”The building was completed in the 1950s, and many of the documents that describe the building are very old and are written by hand in Finnish. Google Translate is always available, but buying a home was such an important matter that we wanted to be absolutely sure that we understood everything.”

Valkoinen mies ja nainen olohuoneessa, nainen ojentaa miehelle kansiota, mies istuu kahvikuppi kädessä pöydällä.
For Sander Ramboer, a Finnish housing company was new, since apartments are purchased in the same way as a detached house in Belgium.

The couple’s friends in Finland – and a helpful real estate agent – provided assistance in matters that the couple could not have thought about themselves. 

”For example, we had no idea about ordering a humidity measurement”, says Shaw. 

For the most part, buying an apartment and getting a loan went perfectly. Most of the work was done online. The couple had to learn some practical matters regarding the housing type by themselves. 

”In Belgium, there is no system where housing company shareholders are jointly liable for matters and vote in meetings. In Belgium, a home is bought in the same manner as a house, whereas in Finland you buy a share from a housing company”, explains Ramboer. 

One big culture shock 

Ramboer and Shaw were satisfied in their decision to buy a home. They like Helsinki and the area where they live. 

And, most importantly: they like each other. 

”We will get married next summer”, says Shaw. 

Sander complains again and again about how a pint can cost so much. 

One of the biggest culture shocks in Finland, which confused Shaw at first, was why speaking to a stranger was so strange to Finns. 

”In the United States, everyone talks with each other.”

According to Shaw, there is one problem that Ramboer complains about repeatedly. 

”The price of beer. Sander complains again and again how a pint can cost so much”, says Shaw, causing Ramboer to laugh.