Plot lease and transfer of leasehold

On this page, you will find information on how a party that has reserved a plot owned by the City of Helsinki must apply for a short-term or long-term lease and how the tenant must inform the city about the transfer of the leasehold.

On this page

Apply for a short-term lease of the plot before applying for a building permit and a long-term lease well in advance so that the lease agreement will be signed before the start of construction or at a separately agreed time. Notify the City of Helsinki of the transfer of the leasehold of plots owned by the city.

Applying for a short-term lease

Apply for a short-term lease of the plot before applying for a building permit. The processing time of a lease application is approximately four weeks.

Attach any reports and documents required in the reservation decision for the plot to the application.

Please note that a power of attorney must be applied for the plots for apartment blocks in Kalasatama and Mellunkylä instead of a short-term lease.

Send an application for a short-term lease of a residential plot by email to tonttihakemukset@hel.fi.

Send an application for a short-term lease of a commercial plot by email to yritystonttitiedustelut@hel.fi.

Applying for a power of attorney for a building permit and a long-term lease

In the case of the residential plots in Kalasatama and Mellunkylä, there is an experiment on using a power of attorney procedure, which replaces the preparation of a short-term lease agreement. The experiment applies to applications submitted after 1 February 2022.

The party that has reserved the plot must simultaneously apply for a power of attorney for a building permit and a long-term lease agreement. With the power of attorney, the City of Helsinki as the owner and holder of the plot entitles the party that has reserved the plot to apply for a building permit for the plot. The party that has reserved the plot may not start excavation on the plot until a decision on the long-term lease has been made.

The processing time for powers of attorney is approximately two weeks. A power of attorney for a plot is valid for one year.

You will find more detailed instructions on the application form.

Send the application by e-mail to tonttihakemukset@hel.fi.

Fill in a form

Apply for a power of attorney and a long-term lease

Applying for a long-term lease

The long-term lease of a plot must be signed before the start of construction or at a separate time specified in the plot reservation decision or another document. The processing time of the lease decision is four to six weeks.

Attach any known easement and/or joint arrangement agreements concerning the plot to the application.

Send the application by e-mail to tonttihakemukset@hel.fi.

Additional information

Attach the following reports and documents to your application:

- A report on the use of building rights, approved by the senior planning officer, including a report on the distribution of flats in the project, the average floor area of the flats, the number of family flats, i.e. flats with at least two bedrooms, and the average area of such flats.
- An energy performance certificate for the project.
- Any known easement and/or joint arrangement agreements concerning the leased plot.
- Any reports or documents required in the reservation decision and/or short-term lease decision for the plot, such as in the case of the Re-thinking Urban Housing programme.

In addition to the above, all projects established in a corporate form must submit an extract from the Trade Register for the company that will become the tenant or buyer.

Signing a long-term lease agreement

Once the decision on the long-term lease of the plot has been made, send us the completed information form. We will finalise the lease agreement based on the information and contact you to agree on the signing date.

Send the information form by email to maaomaisuus.kiinteistosihteerit@hel.fi. You can also submit the form via secure email at securemail.hel.fi; use the address maaomaisuus.kiinteistosihteerit@hel.fi.

If necessary, you can also send the form by regular post to:

City of Helsinki
MAKE/Sopimukset ja valvonta
PO Box 58213
FI-00099 City of Helsinki

The lease agreement will be signed in electronic format via the Property Transaction Service of the National Land Survey of Finland, or at our office located at Työpajankatu 8. Please note, however, that long-term leases for commercial premises cannot be signed via the National Land Survey of Finland service.

Additional information

Prerequisites for the signing are the rental decision by the city being legally valid and the following taking place at the latest in connection with the signing:

- The contracting partner must review and declare its acceptance of the draft agreement attached to the decision by the city and any amendments made to it during the implementation phase, as well as provide information on the signatory and a report of their right to sign the company name.
- The contracting partner must submit a decision of their competent body on the approval of the agreement and on the release of the security and the pledging.
- The contracting partner must also submit to the city any other documents/information that the city has designated in its decision as prerequisites for signing of the agreement.

If the National Land Survey of Finland requires any other documents, these must also be submitted to the city at a later point in time.

Fill in a form

Complete the information form for the lease agreement

Notification on transfer of leasehold

When a land lease agreement for a plot owned by the City of Helsinki includes a clause according to which the tenant has the right to transfer the leasehold to a third party without consulting the landlord, the tenant may transfer the leasehold and the buildings located on the plot in their entirety or a part thereof to a third party without the consent of the city.

Ask for more information:
- Residential plots: asuntotonttitiedustelut@hel.fi
- Commercial plots: yritystonttitiedustelut@hel.fi
- Detached houses: omakotitalotonttitiedustelut@hel.fi

After the transfer, the new tenant must apply for registration of the leasehold from the National Land Survey of Finland.
The new tenant must also, without delay after the transfer, submit to the city a copy of the deed of transfer or other document that serves as the basis for the transfer, as well as submit the new billing address for the lease in writing. Send the copies and the new address to maanvuokralaskutus@hel.fi.

Use the online service

Applying for registration of the transfer from the National Land Survey of Finland

Contact us by email

Service points

Kaupunkiympäristön toimitalo katutasosta kuvattuna.

Urban Environment Division, Customer Services

Address: Työpajankatu 8, 00580 Helsinki