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7 - Locking Out Use Values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2026

Mika Hyötyläinen
Affiliation:
Uppsala University, Sweden
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Summary

In September 2019, Sara, who works as a radiographer in a public hospital in Helsinki, received notice of a registered letter to be retrieved from her local post office. The letter was from her landlord, the Finnish pension provider and nonprofit housing company called Keva. Sara did not think much of it, and only went to pick up the letter several days later while running errands with her partner. At the post office she opened the envelope and read the opening line: “Keva is terminating your rental contract within six months of retrieval of this letter.” The letter was signed by Keva's Real Estate Portfolio Manager and Keva's Housing Secretary. Stunned, Sara and her partner walked back to the apartment that for 15 years had been their home, but which they were now being forced to leave. The question that haunted Sara, and the one that I seek answers for in this final chapter, is why would a public sector pension company that boasts being a reliable, long-term landlord, resort to displacing its working-class tenants, many of whom worked in the public sector? Keva had developed the block of 56 affordable apartments in the central working-class neighbourhood of Sörnäinen in 1999. ARA had helped finance the construction by subsidising the interest payments on Keva's construction loan – provided that Keva would rent the units out affordably, below market rent. During the last two decades, Sörnäinen has undergone noticeable, accelerating changes, not least in real estate values. In fact, the greatest increase in housing prices in Helsinki during the past ten years has happened in Sörnäinen. The hikes in rent have been just as phenomenal. In 2015 the average rent in the neighbourhood was 17 euros per square metre.

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