Image: Helsinki in Numbers, Housing and Related Land Use Implementation Program (in Finnish), p. 8.
As part of my municipal election campaign, I received a question about the construction of new housing:
“Dear candidate, may I ask your opinion on Helsinki’s growth target (8,000 homes/year) and what you plan to do as a councilor to support or revise this target, either upwards or downwards? https://www.hel.fi/en/decision-making/strategy-and-economy/monitoring-city-strategy-and-city-economy/smoothly-functioning-and-beautiful-city“
This is a very relevant question. There is significant migration pressure on Helsinki. At the same time, we also need more workers, particularly to care for the elderly population, which will increase in both numbers and proportion in the coming years, as I previously pointed out. Therefore, new, affordable housing is truly necessary.
However, new housing construction must be carried out in a way that improves the urban environment, Helsinki’s services, and the city’s functionality while preserving urban nature. For this reason, I tend to believe that the revised annual housing start target, reduced from 8,000 to 7,000 homes, is still on the high side. A lower target would be easier to align with the constraints I’ve listed while still likely meeting the actual need for new housing.
The new 7,000-home annual target was established in the Housing and Related Land Use Implementation Program (AM Program, in Finnish), approved by the City Council on August 28, 2024. On page 96 of the program, it is projected that Helsinki’s population will grow by an average of 6,600 residents per year from 2023 to 2036, and this level of growth is estimated to require around 5,500 new homes annually.
On December 14, 2024, I participated in the decision-making process for the Helsinki Green Party’s municipal election program. The program does not specify a numerical housing target, but it does support the construction of more affordable housing by repurposing old industrial areas, vacant office spaces, roadside land, and unused plots for housing.
The goal is for biodiversity in Helsinki to increase, and for the total area of natural spaces to remain at least at its current level. In a growing city, this is a challenging objective, but it must be achieved. After all, it has been done before: under Green leadership, the number of protected nature areas has increased, and despite Helsinki’s population growing by 60,000 over the past decade, the total green space area has remained unchanged.
The new AM Program, adopted in August 2024, will be in effect for four years. If elected to the City Council, I will closely monitor the implementation of the program’s targets and their effects. In the preparation of the next AM Program, I will work to ensure that both my own and the Green Party’s perspectives on housing production targets are reflected in the city’s objectives.
Other key urban planning goals include:
✅ Achieving carbon neutrality and eventually carbon negativity
✅ Ensuring balanced regional development
✅ Securing affordable housing
✅ Building a lively, economically strong, and safe city where everyone can live, thrive, and feel at home
I am committed to working toward all these goals.
This post was also published on my Facebook page as a response to the question:
📌 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9263593696998301&set=p.9263593696998301