| Moving anywhere let alone abroad is immensely
stressful, so it’s a good idea to give yourself
something concrete to look forward to – preferably
cheap housing and a better standard of living. Oulu
estate agents sell comfortable flats, terraces, and
detached houses close to jobs, services, and
amenities, at half the Helsinki prices and a
fraction of other European city charges.
No overcrowding and healthy taxation means few of
Oulu’s 120,000 residents, even the students, elderly,
and unemployed, live in general poverty or decline.
Even the more restless districts are comparatively
quiet. In the city proper, flats are most prevelant
at 60 percent, but regionally the balance shifts to
over 80 percent detached housing, much of it rural
but within commuting distance.
Oulu’s green. Most districts, with the exception
of the city centre, are ringed with thick
berry-filled moose forest. The Finnish idyll, a red
cottage by a lake, a potatoe field, and cow sheds –
with a baking oven and an outdoor sauna – exists for
extremely reasonable prices, close to modern life.
Architecturally parts of the city look like they’ve
been shipped in on a space station. Others, like the
old tar warehouses in the marketplace, or the
railway station’s slanting front and yellow wooden
beams, are frail and beautiful.
Most Oulu residences have a private sauna, the
Finnish specialty alongside triple glazing,
recycling bins, immaculate build quality, respectful
neighbours, access to straight, quiet roads, and a
punctual bus service. Neighbourhoods typically have
their own small supermarket, hairdresser, kiosk,
pub, and pizzeria. Rented flats are furnished with
Nordic white walls, parquet floors, and glazed
balconies, and are warm and very clean.
The eclectic mix of Oulu old and new, modern and
rural amounts to actual choice rather than an ordeal,
and if you’ve seen everything on offer some
municipalities offer sell plots of land for as
little as a euro to erect your own dream cobby or
condo upon. This freedom to setup not only affords
expatriates to improve their lifestyle – the city
has an affordable real estate ladder for children
and grand-children.
If you buy a terrace or flat, bear in mind that
you’ll actually be buying all the shares for your
home from a talonyhtiö, a housing concern owned by
you and your neighbours. Most concerns make quick
work of communal garbage, painting fences, rates,
and heating, and roof, and foundation repairs.
Others – with an elderly population for instance –
can be slow to act, so check the concern’s history
when buying a house. |
