The Finnish housing stock market is undergoing a significant change as the housing information system (HTJ) is being renewed. Renovation information from housing companies and shareholders, as well as consideration and loan share information, will be compiled into the housing information system maintained by the National Land Survey of Finland (MML). The data is reported for the first time in 2025-2026 and at least annually thereafter. It is good for housing company board members to be aware of the requirements and impacts of the reporting obligation starting in June.
Until now, housing companies' renovation and apartment data has been scattered across different systems or in paper form, which has made data management and transparency difficult. The ongoing reform of the apartment information system will change this significantly by centralizing renovation data into one digital system, which will improve data availability, comparability, and long-term management of housing companies.
Graniitti is involved in building better access to information in the National Land Survey of Finland's apartment system reform project, where technical and functional solutions are being built in close cooperation with various actors. The HTJ reform is a socially significant step towards more open, information-based housing, and will affect every apartment owner and housing company in the future.
In Finland, a significant part of the national wealth is held in housing companies, estimated at almost 60 billion euros. The change affects over 90,000 housing companies, where almost half of Finns live. Housing companies are the most important asset type in household wealth, as they account for just under half of total household assets. The reform brings key information on housing companies and apartments into a uniform format, which enables efficient processing and comparability of the data.
Currently, information related to housing companies is fragmented and in different formats. Renovation information can be found as plain text or, at worst, in the depths of a paper folder. Since there are no common data structures, different actors often have to record the same information separately, for example based on a property manager's certificate. In the future, the information will be stored in a uniform, structured format in a national register, allowing different systems to utilize it smoothly and automatically. This will make it much easier to assess the situation of housing companies and individual apartments.
“This is a logical development step in line with the objectives of the register’s operating model made in 2014,” says an expert working on the apartment information system development project. Jaakko Wegelius From Graniitti Services. “Even when I was preparing a report for the Ministry of the Environment project, the importance of interoperable and collected information was recognized.”
"Generally speaking, this is information that a housing company must already have today: maintenance and modification work information, as well as consideration and loan share information. Now it must be reported in a uniform format. Initially, this means compiling and classifying the information, but in the future, the maintenance of the information will take place in connection with the housing company's normal administration processes," he says. Esfir Castle, Project Manager, National Land Survey of Finland.
At this stage, it is worth compiling information about the housing company's renovations and the members' modifications. The starting point can be those renovations that are already listed on the property manager's certificate. Members must report renovations that have been reported to the housing company on or after June 1, 2023 - older renovations can also be recorded if they wish, but the law does not require it.
It is worth noting that the 2026 maintenance needs report must be saved in the apartment information system in the future. The renovation information also includes the year of implementation and the measures taken, classified according to what has been repaired or renovated. Since this takes some time, it is worth starting to collect and structure the information well in advance.
Regarding fees and loan shares, the information can be reported according to the information in the next approved budget, for example, next spring.
Not all housing companies are obliged to submit information to the apartment information system. If the company has a maximum of five apartments and no loan shares are allocated to them, reporting is not mandatory unless one of the shareholders specifically requests it. If a shareholder requests it, the information must be submitted. In practice, for example, a bank or real estate agent may encourage a shareholder to request information from the system, which creates an obligation. Therefore, even smaller housing companies should familiarize themselves with the requirements, even if the obligation does not directly apply to them.
"I am a self-employed property manager in a small company and I plan to export the renovation information to the apartment information system anyway. There it will be stored in a smart format, and there will be no need to dig for the information later - everything is up to date," says Jaakko Wegelius.
The housing company administration, i.e. the property manager, if there is one in the housing company, is responsible for reporting the information and its content. If there is no property manager, the responsibility lies in practice with the housing company board. If the property manager uses an information system that integrates with the apartment information system for the information described here, the information is maintained there and automatically forwarded.
Reporting renovation information via the property management system will be possible from the beginning of June. If such a system is not in use, the information can also be submitted via the National Land Survey of Finland's online service from December 2025. All necessary information must be reported for the first time no later than 30 June 2026. After that, the information must be updated at least once a year.
The apartment information system has been developed in stages. The expansion of the data content will enable more diverse utilization of data throughout the industry in the future. The National Land Survey of Finland will continue to develop the apartment information system in close cooperation with stakeholders so that it better meets the needs of users and supports the digitalization of the industry.
“Compared to other state government registers, apartment data is still in an early stage of development. Today, there are still many paper share certificates. It is difficult to imagine a situation where population data or vehicle data would not be in the register, but would be managed on paper. Back in the early 1980s, you had to apply for a parish priest's certificate, but today the information is viewed in the population information system. All technical information about vehicles is in the register, which makes buying spare parts quite easy. I believe that the processing of apartment data will develop in a similar direction,” says Jaakko Wegelius.
The use of the apartment information system does not cost the housing company anything. The property manager or the system supplier used by the property manager can price their services within the terms of the contract.
Housing company projects completed by 2026 at the latest can be saved in so-called mini format, in which case a simpler, lighter classification is selected. Here, you can select “line renovation” without having to specify in more detail what has been done.
The procedure is the same as before: the shareholders notify the housing company and the housing company's administration records the shareholders' work.
As is the case today when issuing a property manager certificate: the housing company administration is responsible for the information.
For example, if a hosting system is used, instructions will be provided by the system supplier. General procedural guidelines and MML online service instructions will be available on the National Land Survey of Finland website, which is constantly being updated.
The first benefits are the comparability of data, portability in machine language and reduction of manual processing. This can be useful for a housing company, for example, if the property manager changes: in this case, the information can be provided to the new property manager quickly and reliably. This also enables the development of value-added services. For example, the data currently stored can be used to assess maintenance debt and plan renovation needs.
Board members can view the company's information more broadly, for example through the National Land Survey of Finland's online service. Shareholders can view the information more narrowly, for example only their own apartment, not information about other apartments.
Not just anyone can view the information, the right is limited only to the uses listed in the law, and the information services require acceptance of MML's terms of service and agreement.
No consideration accruals are announced, but only the consideration determined based on the decisions of the general meeting in accordance with the budget.
Nothing yet, but in 2027, the sum of the loan shares allocated to the housing company's apartments and the sum of the capital contributions for those apartments whose ownership is registered electronically instead of in a paper share certificate will be displayed.
The apartment information system does not as such replace the property manager's certificate, because it contains more extensive information and because there is a separate regulation on it. Instead, the information in the HTJ is easily available in machine-readable format, e.g. by a bank or broker. In certain situations, the bank could already determine, based on the information found in the registers, that the credit risk is low or that the value of the collateral is sufficient. In such cases, the bank will not necessarily request a separate certificate.
"Looking at the longer term, another question is whether, say, in 10-15 years, there will still be a property manager certificate like the one we have today. This change is one of the steps that will change the way data is processed in the industry, and it will certainly not be the last," reflects Jaakko Wegelius.
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