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Income limits for ARA rental housing tenant selection coming in January
02.10.2024News
Income limits apply to new tenant choices and internal transfers from one dwelling to another. The change applies to some of the apartments rented by the VAV group.
The VAV Group owns around 9 300 apartments built with state support and rented by VAV Asunnot Oy. These apartments will be affected by the change in January.
In addition, the change will affect the selection of residents in VAV Palvelukodit Oy’s service homes, which are mainly run by the Wellbeing services county of Vantaa and Kerava.
The selection of tenants for rental homes built with state support is carried out in accordance with the principles laid down by law. This means that priority is given to applicants with the most urgent housing needs, the least well-off and those with the lowest incomes.
There are already asset limits for ARA rental housing. From the beginning of 2025, income limits will also guide the selection of tenants.
The new criterion comes from the government programme
An additional criterion will be included in Prime Minister Petteri Orpo‘s government programme. The background to this is the government’s concern that ARA housing is not being properly allocated. In future, an ARA dwelling will only be rented to a person or household whose income does not exceed a specified maximum.
“This is not a big change for us. The administrative work involved in selecting tenants will only increase slightly,” says Mirka Saarholma, Managing Director of the VAV Group.
“Our apartments are already very well targeted, as they are rented to low-income Vantaa residents. For example, the average household income of a single person applying for an apartment with us is around EUR 1 600 and the average combined income of two people is EUR 2 500-2 700.”
Income limits governing the choice of tenants
In the future, the income of a single person in a household must not exceed €3 540 per month.
If there are several adults in the household, the income limit for each adult will rise to €2 480.
If there are children under 18 in the household, the income limit rises to €650 for the first child and €600 for each subsequent child.
Examples of income limits:
| People in the household | Income limit |
| 1 adult | 3 540 € |
| 2 adult | 6 020 € |
| 1 adult and 1 child | 4 190 € |
| 2 adult and 1 child | 6 670 € |
| 2 adult and 2 child | 7 270 € |
Income limits do not apply to all VAV rental homes
The income limits do not apply to rental housing rented by the VAV Yhtymä, which is owned by the VAV Group. The VAV Group owns around 1 100 rental homes in various parts of Vantaa.
The income limits also do not apply to the VAV care homes occupied by customers in the Wellbeing services county of Vantaa and Kerava, of which there are about 350 in Vantaa.