russians still buying flats in Finland through a loophole in the law

This was reported by broadcaster Yle.

Finland has banned russians from buying property for security reasons. However, the ban does not apply to flats that are usually purchased by buying shares in a housing company.

According to a report by the investigative journalism programme MOT on Yle, thousands of flats are being sold on russian websites in Finland, and Russians are still buying them. Among the buyers are russians whose sources of wealth raise questions. For example, according to tax data, individuals have little or no income, but they have purchased dozens of flats.

"Although individual flats do not pose the same security risk as large housing estates, this issue also needs to be investigated. [...] A situation where, for example, in a remote area, all the share capital of a housing company ends up in the hands of a hostile player could suddenly pose such a [security threat]," said Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen.

According to Hakkanen, further tightening of legislation in this area is expected. However, he said that monitoring housing transactions carried out by russians would be difficult in practice and would require a lot of resources.

"Hundreds of thousands of transactions are carried out with housing companies every year. We are talking about a completely different scale than in the control of real estate transactions. However, I want this issue to be considered," the defence minister added.

At the same time, according to the investigation, thousands of apartments and other real estate properties in Finland are being sold by russians themselves, as the closure of the eastern border, for example, makes it very difficult to access holiday apartments. MOT also identified about 50 housing companies in which russian shareholders have repeatedly and for a long time failed to pay their contributions. The media noted that russians ‘have practically abandoned their apartments.’

Source: LIGA.net, Yle