In the cold: Finns are being massively evicted from their homes for debt
The annual World Happiness Report for 2025 has recently been published. It once again named Finland as the happiest country in the world, which has held the lead in this ranking for nine years in a row. The Finns themselves are very surprised by this. People are perplexed — how can their state, suffering from economic recession, unemployment and massive psychological problems of the population, seem to someone like a standard of happiness? One of the symptoms of the disaster was an unprecedented increase in the number of people who became so impoverished that their housing was taken away for debts. The details are in the Izvestia article.
And that's what you call happiness?
For many Finns, the fact that their country has been declared the happiest has caused sincere bewilderment, turning into irritation. In Finland, more than half a million people take antidepressants, unemployment is the highest in Europe, 600,000 people are in debt collection, the crisis is raging in the country, and the number of alcoholics is growing. From year to year, the state is shaken by strikes taking place in one industry or another. One of the main causes of the crisis was the complete severance of ties with Russia initiated by Helsinki.
The interim results of this ill-considered step are obvious. According to Statistics Finland, 379 companies filed for bankruptcy in February 2026, which is 51 more than in the same month of 2025. During the year, the number of such applications was 3,961, which is already higher than in 2009 (3,300 bankruptcies), when the world, as we know, was in the grip of a severe economic crisis. The Finnish Business Association Suomen Yrittäjät notes that, in addition to the construction sector, which has been experiencing serious difficulties since 2023, more and more bankruptcy cases have been recorded in the trade sector.
Over the past 12 months, about 600 organizations, both wholesale and retail, have gone bankrupt in the country. The last time such high bankruptcy rates were observed in the retail sector was in 2014. Tiina Toivonen, head of the Legislative Affairs Department at Suomen Yrittäjät, predicts that the increase in the number of bankruptcies will continue at least until the summer: moreover, the main impact will be on small and medium-sized enterprises, whose financial situation is definitely not improving. "In recent years, we have seen bankruptcies of large companies. But in quantitative terms, small entrepreneurs and companies in the field of trade, construction and other professional services are experiencing the most financial difficulties," says the expert.
Hopeless debtors
In April, the Finnish Bailiff Service (Ulosottolaitos) announced that it had put up for sale a record amount of real estate seized from mortgage debtors. At the moment, the agency is selling 13 thousand objects, which is more than in the entire history of the debt collection service. The volume of confiscated housing is growing every year (for example, last year there were 12 thousand of them), most of them apartments. In Eastern Finland alone, about 2.5 thousand real estate objects and shares in housing stock were put up for auction, every third object cost less than € 10 thousand. This is not surprising — the eastern regions of the country, which used to live off Russian tourism, have now become an economic disaster zone with impoverished populations.
Accordingly, the number of debtors in respect of whom the mortgage debt collection procedure is underway has reached a new record: there are already more than 608 thousand of them. More than 90% of them are private individuals. Finnish bailiffs complain that the workload of the Ulosotto service has increased many times, and more and more government resources are being spent on the sale of confiscated housing. The time has long passed when it was believed that only notorious marginals, people who had sunk to the social bottom, could become hopeless debtors. No, they are now often joined by those Finns who were considered respectable members of society just yesterday.
It should be noted that in Finland, the debt collection service does not have the right to sell the debtor's property at a price significantly lower than the market price. At the same time, a maximum of three sales attempts are allowed: either through an auction or through a realtor. However, in the current conditions, this has become a very difficult task — property prices in small Finnish municipalities have fallen to historic lows, but there is no demand for such facilities either. For example, in the village of Ilomantsi (North Karelia province), the landlady cannot sell a two-storey house with an area of 98 square meters. m for only €5 thousand. According to the Iltalehti newspaper, this amount is comparable to the average price per square meter of housing in Helsinki (€4,985 in 2025). However, during the entire sale of the property, there was not a single buyer for it: no one even came to see the house. 83-year-old Lempi Palviainen, who is trying to sell the building, expected that her spacious apartment would be perfect for a family, but now believes that it is the large size of the house that is an obstacle to the sale.
Real estate agent Jorma Voutilainen said that she has been trying to sell an apartment of 84 square meters for two years. m for €4,500 in the village of Tuusniemi in the north of the province of Savo. She notes that the price of the object has already decreased several times, as it is "dictated by the market." According to the expert, one of the reasons was the reduction of medical and social assistance in small municipalities and the concentration of services in large cities. So, in Tuusniemi, you can get an appointment with a doctor at a medical center only a few days a week, and the inpatient department was closed last year. Accordingly, there are fewer and fewer people willing to live in small towns. The optimization of social services, according to Voutilainen, has already led to a more than twofold reduction in housing prices in small municipalities. Houses and cottages in Eastern Finland, near the border with Russia, fell the most in price. If housing prices in the whole country have decreased by 15-20% since 2022, then dachas in the border areas have fallen in price by a quarter.
Housing maintenance is becoming increasingly expensive due to the constant increase in utility costs. So, in April, the government stated that water tariffs in Finland are too low and do not cover the real costs of maintaining and modernizing water supply networks. Finland's Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Reetta Kuronen, warned that water charges "must inevitably rise." According to her, water in Finland is cheaper than in many European countries, but many networks require urgent replacement. Due to the deterioration of the infrastructure and accumulated debts for network repairs, the need for financing is twice as high as the current budget of approximately €400 million per year. At the same time, there are more than 1,000 water supply organizations in Finland, and the difference in water tariffs by region can reach tenfold. A significant gap in tariffs is explained, among other things, by the fact that not all Finnish water supply companies charge for wastewater disposal: in some territories there is no sewer network, and residents have their own wastewater tanks on their sites. The average owner of a private apartment building is 150 sq. m. m now pays €8.98 per cubic meter for water. In the Helsinki metropolitan area, the tariff is €6.57 per cubic meter. The significant increase in water charges announced by the government means an additional increase in annual household spending by hundreds of euros.
The new reality is "energy poverty"
The increase in water tariffs will be very painful for the Finns. After all, up to 15% of Finnish households already live in a state of "energy poverty", in which energy costs cannot be covered due to low incomes. But the Finnish authorities are unwilling to acknowledge this phenomenon, even though it affects up to 300,000 families in the country. Sini Numminen, an employee of Aalto University, noted that the situation is getting worse away from cities, as electricity transmission rates in rural areas can be several times higher than in cities. A study conducted by this university has shown that a significant proportion of households experiencing energy poverty heat their homes with electricity or fuel oil. Therefore, energy costs have become a serious burden for Finnish families, especially those who cannot afford energy-efficient upgrades.
To reduce heating costs, many Finnish families are forced to live in unheated rooms. "For them, the only way out is to turn off the radiators or significantly lower the temperature. Living in the cold can have serious consequences for health and mental state — not only for an individual, but also for society as a whole," the researcher warns. It should be noted that electricity has been very cheap in Suomi for decades, but now the energy market has changed radically. That is why price spikes are perceived very painfully in Finland, where the days of cheap electricity are well remembered. But experts point out that those days are irrevocably gone down in history.
This winter, against the background of severe frosts, electricity prices in the country have reached record levels. In January, the exchange rate reached 34.6 euro cents/kWh. The Maaseudun Tulevaisuus publication explained: "Such price spikes occur on cold, windless days when electricity is used for heating and wind energy is in short supply." Ilta-Sanomat newspaper gave advice to Finns on heating homes, "preventing a sharp increase in energy bills." Those living in large houses were advised to heat only those rooms where people spend the most time. Finns who use electricity sold on the stock exchange at home were advised to keep an eye on the "cheap hours" on the stock exchange for underfloor heating, radiators, water heaters and household appliances, that is, to use electricity only at its lowest cost. Recently, residents of the country have collected more than 52 thousand signatures on a petition to the country's parliament against high electricity tariffs. But this appeal may not have time to be considered before the end of the term of the current convocation of the Eduskunta, which expires in the spring of 2027. Frosts have also led to an increase in the volume of timber harvesting in Finland, primarily for burning as firewood.
Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, recalled that one of the causes of the economic crisis was the rupture of political and economic relations with Russia initiated by Helsinki, one of the consequences of which was, in particular, that the Finns lost cheap wood fuel from the Russian Federation. "The situation in Finland has become so obviously bad that their leadership in the "happiness rating" no longer reassures Finns. Entire regions are plunging into poverty, economic sectors such as construction and trade have fallen into complete decline, and the number of debtors being deprived of housing is growing: of course, it is no longer possible to turn a blind eye to this. Private Finn is constantly in a state of frustration. He no longer has a sense of confidence in the future, there are no guarantees that he will not lose his job and will not be thrown out of his home for non-payment of the mortgage. And worst of all, there is no visible white stripe on the horizon," Eremina notes.
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