Finland has a complete, public map of who owns every piece of land, and the National Land Survey (Maanmittauslaitos, MML) maintains it. If you buy a house, a cottage plot or a piece of forest, you will deal with two of its registers: the cadastre, which records what the property is and where its boundaries run, and the title and mortgage register, which records who owns it and what is charged against it. This page is about the first, and about the survey that creates new properties. The purchase itself is covered in buying property in Finland.
A flat in a block is normally not a property in this sense at all — you own shares in the housing company that owns the building — so if that is what you are buying, most of this page is background.
The property identifier
Every property has an identifier consisting of four numbers separated by hyphens, for example 740-555-2-0. The first part is the municipality; the rest locate the property within it. You will find it on the property tax demand, on the certificate of title, and on MML's online map once you zoom in far enough. Identifiers for unseparated parcels and leaseholds are not on the map but can be found in the owner's details in MML's e-service.
A property can be a single plot, several separate pieces of land, or land and water together. It includes the buildings on it and anything fixed to it.
What the cadastre shows
You will usually meet the cadastre as one of these documents, each €16 in MML's e-service or €19 from customer service, at the time of writing:
- Extract from the cadastre: the identifier, date of registration, area, and how the property was formed, alongside plans affecting it, easements, rights of use such as rights of way, and its shares in jointly owned areas.
- Cadastral index map: the property on a map, showing boundaries and boundary markers. In built-up areas, it is based largely on the municipality's own large-scale base maps.
- Certificate of title: who owns the property.
- Certificate of mortgages and encumbrances: mortgages, leases, rights of use and other special rights registered against it.
Look at all four before you buy land. Easements matter more than newcomers might expect: a neighbour's registered right of way across your plot, or your own cottage's road across someone else's land, is listed on the extract and is not always obvious on the ground.
Jointly owned areas
Many rural properties own a share in areas held in common with their neighbours — typically a village's shared water area, and sometimes shared landings or gravel pits. These are managed by a shareholders' association of the properties that own the shares. The extract lists your property's shares. When a new property is formed, part of the survey involves deciding which shares it receives.
Parcelling: creating a new property
If you buy a parcel — a defined area cut from someone else's property, such as a cottage plot from a farm — it is not yet a property in its own right. Parcelling (lohkominen) makes it one.
For a purchase, you do not have to apply. Parcelling starts automatically when you apply for registration of title to the parcel. If you already own a property and want to split it, you must apply for parcelling yourself.
A cadastral surveyor from MML then:
- researches the parties and the properties involved
- marks and measures the boundaries on the ground and sets boundary markers
- calculates the new property's area
- settles the rights it requires, such as a road across another property to the public road, and any associated compensation
- divides the existing easements and jointly owned shares between the old property and the new one
These matters are decided at a survey meeting, often held on site alongside the measuring. You do not have to attend if you have nothing to add, and you can send a representative, which is useful if you live abroad. The surveyor makes the decision, in some cases alongside two cadastral officers appointed by the municipality.
Parcelling takes about six months, or longer if the ground is under snow. The new property appears in the cadastre about a month after the survey is completed, and the owners receive the documents.
Parcelling fees
The owner of the parcel pays. The fee depends on the area and includes the demarcation, rights of way, the surveyor's work, and the boundary markers. At the time of writing, with no VAT:
| Parcel area up to | Fee |
|---|---|
| 0.1 ha | €1,240 |
| 1 ha | €1,470 |
| 5 ha | €1,810 |
| 20 ha | €2,200 |
| 60 ha | €2,810 |
| 100 ha | €3,310 |
The fee is determined by the date your application is received.
Parcelling is not a building permit
Forming a plot does not determine whether you may build on it. That is the municipality's decision, governed by its land-use plans and building permits. Most parcelling is done so that someone can build, but ask the municipality's building control before you buy land for a house.
Other cadastral surveys
The same process handles boundary demarcation (finding and marking a disputed or lost boundary), partitioning a property owned jointly by several people into separate properties, and surveys for private roads and easements. An owner or co-owner of the property can apply via MML's e-service or using a paper form.
If you disagree
You can appeal a survey decision to the Land Court. The deadline is 30 days after you receive the documents.
Related
- Buying property in Finland
- Getting a mortgage in Finland
- Renting out your property, including ground leases
- Everyman's right and picking berries, which is why your forest is not entirely private
