Vantaa regulates the size of apartments in new apartment building projects

From 1.1.2024, the City of Vantaa will regulate the floor area of blocks of flats in land use agreements and, if necessary, in urban development plans, so that no more than 30% per housing project may be flats with a floor area of less than 35 m² and at least 30% must be flats with a floor area of 65 m² or more. In addition, at least 10% of the total number of dwellings on the site must be 80 m² or larger. At the same time, the regulation is slightly relaxed in that the number of rooms is no longer a limiting factor, as the regulation is based solely on the surface area of the dwellings.

The infographic above (in Finnish) illustrates the regulation in an example apartment block with 30 apartments: the number of window boxes shows the distribution of the number of apartments. The number of window boxes indicates the distribution of the size of the apartments. There must be no more than 9 apartments under 35 m², at least 6 apartments over 65 m², at least 3 apartments over 80 m² and the remaining 12 apartments over 35 m². 

In recent years, Vantaa has seen a very large number of small dwellings being built. Already more than half of the new flats in blocks of flats have been one-room flats. The average size of dwellings has been on a downward trend throughout the last decade. In 2022, the average size of new apartment blocks was 44 m², down from around 54 m² in 2011. The average floor area for single-family houses has gone from 34 m² to 28 m².

− The new regulation will be created when the market situation is challenging, but it will not yet affect the present, but the guiding effect will be seen in the coming years, when the new regulation will be applied to land-use planning projects and related land-use agreements starting from the beginning of 2024, says Tero Anttila, Deputy Mayor of the Urban Environment Division.

In the city's own land allocation and in land allocation competitions, the requirements for regulating the floor area of apartment buildings or other dwellings may be stricter than the above conditions, for example, the minimum number of square metres may be increased or the percentage of larger dwellings may be increased. Such exceptions will be submitted as proposals for decision to the City of Vantaa's municipal premises committee.

Excluded from the regulation are sites for special groups, such as student housing or care housing, as well as special sites approved by the city based on a specific housing concept.

Thousands of new homes every year

In recent years, around 3000 new dwellings have been built in Vantaa every year. Over the last ten years, two thirds of these have been apartment blocks, built in the station areas, along the railway lines. Vantaa is also expected to grow strongly in the coming years, especially along the future railway line.

The city has regulated the distribution of apartment types in apartment buildings since 2018. According to the current policy, no more than 30% of residential apartment buildings may be single units and at least 30% must be triplexes or larger.

− The current guidance has already helped to produce a more diverse range of apartment types, but because it does not take into account the number of square metres, the area of triplexes, for example, may have remained very small, says Elisa Ranta, Housing Manager at the City of Vantaa. 

− Building apartments of different sizes is important to ensure that the housing stock in the area offers options for different life situations and to ensure a diverse housing supply in the future. Diversified housing also helps to prevent regional segregation, Ranta continues.

The new guidelines were approved by the City of Vantaa City Council at its meeting on 18 September 2023.