Do you want to apply for an apartment?

At earliest you may apply for housing after you have received a formal letter of acceptance from your school in Finland. You can apply for housing six months before the need of an apartment. For exchange students it is recommended to also read this guide: Guide for Exchange & Master’s degree students

Students under the age of 18 are required to have their parents’ consent for liability on the tenancy agreement.

Kuopas’ apartments are meant for all degree students studying in the following institutions in the city of Kuopio and its surroundings:

• University of Eastern Finland
• University of Applied Sciences
• High school
• Vocational institute or equivalent

The urgency of your need for an apartment and the amount of your monthly steady income during your studies both have an effect to your waiting time for Kuopas’ apartment.

Kuopas’ apartments are mainly intended for degree students (for example Bachelor’s or Master’s degree). For PhD students the apartments can be offered situationally. If you are a PhD student, please add the information of your PhD status to the last page of the application.

What kind of apartments can I apply for?

There are many housing options to suit a student’s different needs:

• Shared apartments (2 and 3 room)
• Single apartments/studios
• Family apartments (2 or 3 rooms)

Furnished apartments are located only in Kuntokuja 2 (shared apartments, in Puijonlaakso), Katiskaniementie 6 (shared apartments, in Rauhalahti). We also have few furnished studios in Särki (Särkiniementie 30).

See pictures and information about apartment types and accessories in the Apartment search. You can also find some pictures of some of the best styled student apartments sent to us by our tenants in the Apartment gallery.

The search result will show you all locations which have apartments that match your search. You can search for furnished apartments also, marked with (F). The building’s info page has a link called Gallery of decorated apartments, which will take you to the Apartment gallery page dedicated to that building.

Each location has the Apartments list, which list all the apartments in the location. Adding the apartment to your application from the Apartments list is the most secure way to apply to a certain type of an apartment. In this way we can offer you that apartment type, as soon that the apartment type is available in that location and you are first in line. It also adds those apartments which are available now and available soon to your application.

You can also see the available and soon to be available apartments from the location’s page. If you add the apartment to your application from Available and Soon to be available lists, you are applying only to that certain apartment. Please know, that all our studios normally have a waiting time from few months to a one year. This means, that we can’t ensure that we can send you and offer, if you choose the apartment only from the Available now or Soon list. This is why we suggest that you always add studios to your application from the Apartments list. Also, during the Fall all our apartments are normally full. This means, that you should also apply to rooms from shared apartments and family apartments from the Apartments list, as we can’t ensure that you will be offered the apartment from the Available now or Soon lists.

To send a general application, like “all studios in Kuopio”, you can proceed from “Apply” button in up right. To apply furnished apartments, choose all suitable furnished apartments from Katiska (Katiskaniementie 6), Pankkola (Kuntokuja 2) and Särki (Särkiniementie 30).

Even if you are moving from another Kuopas’ apartment, you need to give us your notice of termination concerning your previous tenancy agreement. The notice of termination time is needed also if your building is demolished or sold by Kuopion Opiskelija-asunnot Oy. The notice period is one full calendar month.

Please make sure, that before you accept an offer from Kuopas, you have terminated the contract of the old apartment and that you don’t have to pay the rent for two apartments at the same time, if you don’t plan to do so.

Example: If you terminate your current contract during January, you still have to pay the rent of February.

More information about terminating a contract can be found here: Termination of contract and graduation

How do I fill the application form?

You can browse our locations and apartments and add them to your application from the Apartment search. If you wish to send a more general application, you can skip the Apartment search and send a more general application.

If you are looking for a furnished apartment, it is easiest to search for all furnished apartments in the Apartment search, choose them to your apartment shopping basket and apply with those selections.

Shared apartment with friends: Choose this application type when you proceed, when you want to apply Kuopas housing with a friend. Each applicant must have a separate application, and applicants must add the name of friend in the end of the application.

The application is valid for two months. You will receive an email one week before the application becomes unvalid. You can use the link in the email to renew the application. If you wish to edit your application after sending it, please contact Kuopas’ customer care, don’t send a new application.

By applying you agree that Kuopas can send you marketing emails about available apartments. You can disable the marketing emails any time from a link in the email. All adult applicants should fill in their email to the application.

How to accept or decline an offer

You will receive a proposal for tenancy agreement by e-mail. Check your email regularly!

The proposal will contain the address of your new apartment/room, its type, size, rent and the starting date of the rental period. The tenancy agreement begins if you pay the deposit before the due date and send the receipt to us by email.

We get the information about the most popular available rooms one month ahead. If you are applying for a room starting on 1st January, you will get a proposal for tenancy agreement at latest in the beginning of December. If you are applying for a room on autumn semester, you will get proposal for tenancy agreement at latest in the beginning of July. In the summer the offer may come in a shorter notice time. You can see all our currently free rooms from the Apartment search.

You can decline our offer and wait for a different offer, if our offer doesn’t match your application (area, rent, moving in date, apartment type). If you decline an offer, you must always inform us immediately, otherwise your application will become invalid automatically.

If you decline an offer that matches your application, you will need to send us a new application to receive new offers.

I was offered an apartment … What next?

Deposit payment

To confirm the acceptance of the apartment you must pay the deposit payment. The Tenancy agreement begins if you pay the deposit before due date and send the receipt for your payment by e-mail to the Kuopas’ office. The amount for a shared room is 250 € and for a single apartment and a family apartment 400 €. This is the guarantee you give to us, of your intention of looking after all obligations concerning your apartment. The deposit payment has to be paid immediately after receiving an apartment offer to keep the apartment reserved for you.

Please remember to use the reference number in your payment. The reference number is in the offer email.

When the rental period is over the deposit will be returned to you within one month of the end of your tenancy agreement, granted that you have fulfilled all obligations to Kuopas and the apartment is clean and in good condition.

Please notice that foreign bank may charge some costs for a transaction. Ask your bank how to transfer the correct amount! If the amount of the deposit payment we receive is incomplete because of the transferring costs, we will have to make a request for the rest of the amount. When returning the deposit, we transfer the same amount from our account that we have received from you. The amount that reaches your account may be less because of the transaction costs. Please ask your bank about the transferring costs.

The tenancy agreement (Open ended) is valid for the duration of your studies in case you don’t terminate the agreement earlier. All tenancy agreements are open ended, if we have not agreed that the contract is fixed. According to the tenancy agreement and the law, on open ended contract you are liable to give a full month’s notice on the termination of the tenancy.

The tenancy agreement can also be made for a fixed period, for example after you have finished your studies or for a summer period.

Renting your apartment to a third party is only allowed with our permission. The use of Airbnb for Kuopas apartments is forbidden.