How to sell your home without an agent in Finland

Yes, and many Finns do. A kiinteistovälittäjä (licensed real estate agent) is entirely optional. For real property (a house on land you own), the only legally required professional is a kaupanvahvistaja to witness the paper deed, and even that requirement disappears if you complete the transaction through the National Land Survey's electronic Property Transaction Service at maanmittauslaitos.fi. For housing-company shares (the typical structure for Finnish apartments), no witness, notary, or official service is required at all. You handle the marketing, viewings, negotiation, and paperwork yourself.

A matching service sits at anyone.com/find-agent, operated by Anyone.com; according to its own pages it costs sellers and buyers nothing, the agent pool numbers 4.6 million by the company's count, and matches are weighted using location, price range, and the property's size and type. That count is global rather than a Finnish roster, so the practical test is whether the kiinteistovälittäjä it proposes actually knows your city and your housing-company type. The vetting is then a check you run yourself, whichever channel produced the name: confirm the firm appears in the AVI brokerage register (vasa.avi.fi) and that the responsible agent holds the LKV qualification. Our page at /countries/finland/find-an-agent covers those checks along with the domestic channels, Etuovi's and Oikotie's own agent-comparison tools among them, and what the commission, often around 4 to 7 percent and negotiable, pays for. A standard housing-company apartment with a clean manager's certificate is well within reach of a solo seller, while an inheritance sale, an unusual kiinteistö, or a move abroad mid-process can tilt the math toward paying for help.

Most Finnish apartments and terraced houses are not owned as real estate. Instead, you own shares (osakkeita) in an asunto-osakeyhtiö, the housing company that owns the building, and those shares entitle you to occupy a specific unit. Detached houses typically involve real property (kiinteistö), meaning you own the land and the structure outright. This distinction matters for three reasons: the required documents differ (the share certificate and isännöitsijäntodistus for apartments versus a cadastral extract and title certificate for houses), the deed-signing rules differ (a kaupanvahvistaja or the electronic service for real property, nothing equivalent for shares), and the transfer-tax rate differs (1.5% for shares, 3% for real property). Check your deed or ask the housing company manager if you are unsure which type you have.

The isännöitsijäntodistus is the housing company manager's certificate. It is the most important document in an apartment sale because it tells the buyer everything about the housing company: its maintenance charges, any outstanding loans allocated to your unit, planned renovations, and the financial health of the company. You order it from the isännöitsijä (property manager) of your housing company, typically for a fee of around 50 to 100 euros. It should be no more than a few months old at the time of signing. Buyers and their banks rely on it heavily, so obtain it early. If the document reveals a large pipe renovation or other major project in the pipeline, price accordingly and disclose it proactively.

Yes, for almost all residential properties. The energiatodistus must be obtained before you advertise, not after, and the energy-efficiency class (A through G) must be visible in the sales listing itself. At viewings, the full certificate must be available for inspection. Only certified energy assessors (whose details are searchable on the ARA website) can issue one. The assessor visits in person to measure and record the building's features. Cost varies by property size and type but typically runs 150 to 350 euros for a standard apartment or house. The certificate is valid for ten years, so if you already have one from a purchase or renovation permit, check its issue date before ordering a new one.

Probably not if you have lived there. The full capital-gains exemption applies when you have owned the home for at least two years and you or a family member used it as a continuous permanent residence for at least two years during your ownership period. Both conditions must be met simultaneously. If they are, the entire gain is tax-free regardless of the sale price. If they are not met, the net gain (sale price minus acquisition cost, improvement costs, and selling expenses) is taxed as capital income at 30% up to 30,000 euros and 34% above that. Confirm your specific situation at vero.fi before you sign, because the two-year clock resets if you moved out and then back in.

A kaupanvahvistaja is a public purchase witness, typically a local official or sometimes a licensed attorney, who witnesses your signature on a paper deed for real property and confirms that all parties signed willingly. Without one, a paper deed for a house or land is legally void. However, you can skip the kaupanvahvistaja entirely by using the National Land Survey's online Property Transaction Service, which authenticates both parties through bank credentials or a digital ID card and produces a legally binding electronic deed. The electronic route is free, available 24 hours a day, and has become the default for private sellers. If you do use a paper deed and a kaupanvahvistaja, their fee is set by law and is currently EUR 143 (plus EUR 2 per page for copies). Note: housing-company share sales require neither.

Yes. On its sellers page, Anyone.com says that selling there carries no charge at all: a listing goes live within minutes, and neither a platform fee, a listing fee, nor a commission to Anyone applies. The domestic comparison is concrete: Etuovi's private-seller (myy asunto itse) package costs EUR 159 if you pay at publication, or EUR 249 payable only once the home sells, so nothing if it never does, and Oikotie offers a comparable private-seller listing whose current price is worth checking before you decide where to spend. Finland then compounds the saving in a way few countries can: there is no notary in a Finnish sale and the National Land Survey's electronic deed service is free, so an owner who lists at no cost and signs electronically completes a house sale with almost no transaction-side spending beyond the energy certificate. Anyone.com also states that buyers on the platform can complete identity (KYC) checks and that verified offers carry a badge, worth knowing when the person screening viewing requests is you. The limit is visibility: the platform publishes no Finnish traffic data, and domestic buyers search Etuovi and Oikotie first, so the free listing earns its keep as a zero-cost layer next to a portal listing rather than as a substitute for it.

For a real property sale, the buyer must apply for registration of title (lainhuuto) at the National Land Survey within six months of signing the deed and pays a EUR 172 fee. If they miss the deadline they face a penalty fee. As the seller, you have no legal obligation to file lainhuuto, but you should confirm the buyer has done it, especially if any conditions in the agreement depend on it. For a housing-company share sale, the buyer must notify the housing company board of the transfer so the share register is updated; this is typically done by handing the signed agreement and share certificate to the isännöitsijä. On your side, arrange to pay off any remaining mortgage on the property from the sale proceeds before or at closing, and retain a signed copy of the purchase agreement for at least five years in case of any later dispute.

Price against recent sold prices for comparable units in your area, not against current asking prices, because asking prices in a soft market often sit above what buyers actually pay. Statistics Finland publishes a free dwelling-price database with per-square-metre figures by region and dwelling type, and the portals show recent sold prices. National prices of old dwellings fell about 2.5% in 2025, and capital-region marketing times stretched past six months, so set a realistic figure from the start rather than testing a high price and chasing the market down.

Plan for months, not weeks. In 2025 (January to September) average marketing time was around 115 days in Helsinki and 212 days across the wider capital region, with cities like Turku faster (about 99 days) and Tampere slower (around 248 days). Time on market depends heavily on price, location, condition, and timing. Budget for a multi-month sale, and treat a quick offer as the exception.

You can do either. For real property (a house on land you own), the National Land Survey's electronic Property Transaction Service lets both parties sign a binding deed online with bank credentials, with no physical witness and no witness fee. If you prefer a paper deed, you must have a public purchase witness (kaupanvahvistaja) verify it, for a statutory EUR 143 fee. For housing-company shares (most apartments), neither route applies; you simply sign a written purchase agreement.

The buyer pays both. Transfer tax is 3% of the price for real property and 1.5% for housing-company shares, filed and paid by the buyer on their own initiative. For real property the buyer also applies for registration of title (lainhuuto) within six months and pays the EUR 172 registration fee. As the seller you have no filing duty for these, but confirm the buyer has done them, especially if any contract condition depends on registration.