Guide for Exchange & Master’s degree students

Student housing in Kuopio

Kuopas (Kuopio Student Housing Company) builds and maintains student housing in Kuopio. Over 3000 students and their families live in Kuopas’ apartments.
📍 Address: Torikatu 15, 70110 Kuopio, Finland
📞 Phone: +358 (0)20 710 9740
✉️ Email: customerservice[at]kuopas.fi

This guide is for Exchange students and Master’s degree students.

Apartments for exchange students

Most international students in Kuopio live in furnished shared apartments. Each student has a private, lockable room and shares the kitchen and bathroom with 1–2 same-gender roommates.
If you are coming to Kuopio with your family, you can apply for a family apartment (2–3 rooms). These are mainly reserved for families, but if no families are waiting, you can rent one with a friend. Furnished family apartments are available in Katiskaniementie 6.

Kuopas has 29 housing locations around Kuopio, all located within 0.5–8 km from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and Savonia UAS campuses. Most international students live in:

  • Katiskaniementie 6 (Rauhalahti) – Furnished shared apartments and family apartments
  • Kuntokuja 2 (Puijonlaakso) – Furnished shared apartments and family apartments
  • Särkiniementie 30 (Särki) – Furnished studio apartments and unfurnished studio apartments

If you have preferences about the location of your apartment, please choose the ones you apply or mention it in your application. However, during the busy summer/autumn period, we may not be able to fulfill all location requests.

If we don’t offer the exact apartment type you applied for, it means it is not available – but we will try to offer you something similar.

Rent

  • Rent for a furnished shared apartment: approx. 279€–382 €/month (per person)
  • Unfurnished shared apartment: approx. 225€–410 €/month (per person)
  • Family apartments: start from 490 €/month
  • Unfurnished studios: start from 400 €/month

➜ Please note: Studios are rarely immediately available, so there might be a waiting period.

Rent is paid by bank transfer only – we can’t accept cash.

What does the rent include?

  • Shared apartments: rent includes water, electricity, and heating
  • Family apartments: rent includes water and heating, but not electricity
  • Parking is extra: 10–20 €/month
  • All apartments include:
    • Fridge, stove, basic lighting, and shower curtain
    • Shared kitchen in shared apartments has a table and chairs
  • Furnished rooms come with:
    • Bed (with mattress, blanket, and pillow – no bed linen)
    • Desk, chair(s), and bookcase

🛏️ A new mattress, blanket, and pillow are delivered to furnished apartments on the first working day of the month. If no one is home, the logistics company will use a master key. Old sets might be temporarily present until then.

🛜 Free 25 Mbit internet is included. You can upgrade the speed if needed.

📡 Modem is included in furnished apartments. If your apartment is not furnished, you may borrow one from Kuopas office if available.

🧺 Laundry room access is always free.

🔥 Most housing locations have a sauna:

  • One free weekly common sauna turn
  • Private sauna turn: 20 €/month (1 hour/week)

Read more here: Sauna, laundry room and parking spaces

What you need to bring

You should bring (or buy/rent):

  • Bed linen (sheets, pillowcase)
  • Towel
  • Kitchenware (plate, cutlery, pots, etc.)

Survival packages (basic linen + essential kitchenware) are available for international students from the UEF Student Union and Savonia.

🚌 A monthly bus ticket is around 40 €. See Kuopio public transport (Vilkku) for more info.

⚡️ If your apartment offer mentions electricity is not included, you need to make an electricity contract. This is common in family apartments. You can choose any provider – for example: Instructions for electricity contract

How to apply for student housing

You can apply for housing on our website as soon as you have received the official Letter of Acceptance from the University of Eastern Finland or Savonia UAS. But please note: you can apply no earlier than 6 months before your planned arrival in Kuopio.

Application deadlines

  • 15ᵗʰ June
    • For  the Autumn semester (Aug–Dec)
    • For the Full academic year (Aug–May)
  • 15ᵗʰ November
    • For the Spring semester (Jan–May)

You can apply anytime, but outside these dates, availability may be limited.

Students from outside the EU

If you’re coming from outside the EU, we recommend applying for housing only after you have received your residence permit.
We cannot cancel your housing contract if your permit is denied or delayed, and you are still responsible for paying the rent.

After you apply

Once you’ve submitted your online application, you’ll get a confirmation email from Kuopas. Check your spam folder too! We will later send you a housing offer by email – usually about one month before your arrival, sometimes earlier.

Please check your email regularly! You’ll only have a few days to accept the offer.

What’s in the apartment offer?

Your offer email will include:

  • Apartment address and type
  • Size
  • Rent amount
  • Starting date of your tenancy

You accept the offer by paying the deposit before the deadline stated in the offer.

  • Deposit amount:
    • 250 € for a shared room
    • 400 € for a family apartment or studio

If you don’t pay the deposit by the due date, the offer will be cancelled and the apartment offered to someone else.

Rent & deposit

  • The deposit is returned to your bank account (even international) within one month after you move out, as long as:
    • You have returned the key(s) correctly
    • Paid all rent and bills
    • The apartment is clean and undamaged
  • The rent is paid starting from the contract start date
  • Rent is due on the 5ᵗʰ of each month
  • If payment is late, Intrum Oy (a Finnish collection agency) will charge late fees and interest

You’ll find all rent payment details in your contract. You can also pay for multiple months at once if that is easier for you.

Contract starting date

During August–September, the demand for student apartments is very high.

Even if your exchange starts in September, we might offer you an apartment that starts from 1ˢᵗ August.
In this case, you must still pay for August rent.

If you want to guarantee that you have a place to stay, we recommend accepting the earlier offer. If you decline, we may offer a September apartment later — but availability is not guaranteed.

Important rules

  • Tenancy agreements usually start at the beginning of the month. If your situation is different, please contact Kuopas customer service.
  • In shared apartments, you cannot use or store things in an empty room, even if no one is living there. Also, no friends or guests may stay in the empty room. Only tenants with a valid contract can live there.

Ending your tenancy — Notice of termination

When you are getting ready to leave Kuopio, you must personally give notice to end your tenancy agreement. Kuopas does not automatically end your contract when your studies finish.

How long is the notice period?

Most student tenancy contracts (including exchange and Master’s students) are open-ended, meaning there is no fixed end date. For these, the notice period is one full calendar month.
Example: If you send your Notice of Termination during January, your rental contract ends on the last day of February. You must still pay rent for the full month of February.

If you have a fixed-term contract (e.g. 1.1.–30.4.), you do not need to give notice — the contract ends automatically.

If you live in a family apartment with one shared contract, both tenants must sign the Notice of Termination form.

Returning your keys

You must return your apartment keys to the Kuopas office on the moving day. The moving day is the business day after your tenancy agreement ends. If your tenancy ends on a weekend or public holiday, the moving day is the first business day after that.

If the office is closed, you can leave the key in the mailbox — put it in an envelope with your name and address clearly written on it.

Read more: Moving out guide

How to give notice

The notice must always be in writing and signed.
You can:

  • Visit Kuopas’ office and fill out the form
  • Email a scanned, signed copy of the form
  • Send it by regular mail to Kuopas

► Download the form here..

Where can I get more information?

Please read all our guides for more information. If you are not sure what to do, you are always welcome to contact our customer service.

  • Applying Quick guide ← Read this before applying. Also read the instructions in the application.
  • Student apartment locations ← Most of our exchange students live in furnished shared apartments in Katiskaniementie 6 (Katiska) and some in Kuntokuja 2 (Pankkola) and Särkiniementie 30 (Särki). If you are on an exchange, we suggest you to apply at least to those locations, as they are the only ones with furnished apartments. Master’s degree students often rent apartments and rooms also from other locations and buy furniture from Kuopio.
  • Application, apartment types and rents
  • Moving in Quick guide ← You should read this after applying or at least before you come to Kuopio. It will tell you when you can get the keys etc.
  • Tenant’s guide ← This is the general guide about living in Kuopas’ apartments. You should read this before coming to Kuopio.
  • Moving out Quick Guide ← Read this when you arrive here. Please remember to send us the Notice of termination when you leave.
  • Living in Kuopas apartment
  • Termination of contract and graduation