Housing benefit hike prompts students’ to live alone

Change in student housing support has increased the popularity of living alone among students, reported Finnish language newspaper Kaleva.

"Nowadays a student who lives alone gets more housing support than previous student housing supplement so living alone has become more attractive," said Mirja Peltonen ,an expert from the national social insurance institution-Kela.

At the same time, the change could direct more demand towards free housing market from the student housing, Peltonen pointed out.

Students became eligible to be covered under the general housing allowance scheme in the summer of 2017.

The change raised the housing allowance for most of the students, however, some students also lost housing allowance completely.

This is because the general housing allowance is s household-based. This means that the income of the spouse living in the same household affect the amount of the housing allowance.

The impact of the change has also been witnessed by the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region-HOAS in the Helsinki area, said Matti Tarhio, CEO at HOAS.

"The popularity of shared apartment has been constantly decreasing. However, after the change in general housing allowance, the demand has fallen more clearly," said Tarhio.

The increased in housing allowance has increased exodus of students from the shared apartments in many other cities. This has been the case for many student housing foundations and companies in for instance, Rovaniemi, Lappeenranta, Turku and Seinäjoki.