Index-Linked Rent: What Should It Rise By?

If your Espoo lease raises the rent by an index, work out the new rent from Statistics Finland's published figures, with both readings shown so you can check the letter.

[data-tool-body-wait]{display:none}This part of the page needs JavaScript, and this browser isn’t running it. Everything else on the page still reads.

This still hasn’t loaded. It looks stuck rather than slow, so reloading is worth a try now.

Reload the page Other tools for Espoo

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Espoo and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

What each index has done

The change in each published index over the last few months, up to its most recent reading. This is what has already happened, not a forecast.

Index	3 months	6 months	12 months
Cost-of-living index (elinkustannusindeksi 1951:10=100)	−0,2 %	+1,1 %	+2,2 %
Consumer price index, 2015=100 (kuluttajahintaindeksi)	−0,2 %	+1,1 %	+2,2 %

Index levels read live from Statistics Finland (Tilastokeskus). Read now.

Work out your own adjustment

These indices are published once a month, and a month's figure comes out around the 14th of the next month. Type any day inside the month your contract names. For a contract that says "the index of the month before the change", type a day in that month, not the day the new rent starts. The page shows which month it read.

Type what you pay now and the two dates your contract works between. Everything stays in this browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Which index does your contract name?

The index Finnish leases have named for decades. If your contract says "elinkustannusindeksi", it means this one.

When the rent was last set

The start of the contract, or the date of the last adjustment.

How often it adjusts

This only fills in the date above for you. Change it if your contract says otherwise.

The date of this adjustment

The day the new rent starts.

What you pay now, each month

Optional — leave it empty and you still get the percentage.

The adjustment

Fill in the two dates above.

This divides one published index reading by another — the same arithmetic the contract describes. It is not advice about whether the increase is owed, and the contract, not this page, decides which index and which dates apply.

What the law says about index-linked rent

An index clause is allowed in most leases, but not in short fixed-term ones

Finland bans index clauses in contracts in general. The ban does not apply to a residential lease that runs until further notice, or one made for at least three years. So an index clause in a fixed-term lease shorter than three years has no legal force.

Act on Limiting the Use of Index Clauses (1195/2000), sections 1 and 2

The landlord must tell you in writing before a new rent starts

Before a rent increase can take effect, the landlord has to notify the tenant in writing of the new rent and the date it takes effect. A landlord cannot simply decide the date or the amount during the lease unless the grounds for increases were also agreed in the contract.

Act on Residential Leases (481/1995), section 27

Either side can ask a court whether the rent is reasonable

If the rent is well above what similar flats in the area cost, a tenant can ask the district court to lower it, and a landlord can ask for a rise when the rent is unreasonably low. This is a real route, but a slow one. Housing counselling can tell you whether it is worth it.

Act on Residential Leases (481/1995), sections 29 and 30

Where to go if the numbers do not agree

City of Espoo housing counselling

Free help with housing questions for anyone living in Espoo, including in a private rental. They can read a rent letter with you.

Email: asumisneuvonta@espoo.fi
Website: espoo.fi

Consumers’ Union of Finland — housing phone line

Advice in English about renting a home. Tuesdays 12–13 and Thursdays 17–18 at the time of the last check; call at those times.

Phone: +358 40 923 3844
Website