What does the property market look like through an owner's eyes?

A great deal is written about the property market. Every writer has their own vantage point. Consultants sell reports and banks sell financing. Both are competent. Neither one owns the properties.

“Consultants and banks look at the market from the outside. We read the market through the work we do every day,” says Samppa Lajunen, CEO of Samla Capital.

The difference is not one of attitude but of where the information comes from. Owning property produces market knowledge as a by-product, because an owner has to follow things that cannot be followed from the outside.

Four things an owner sees before the statistics

The price and availability of construction. We work with construction companies continuously. The mood that comes through in those conversations tells us where the construction sector stands before it shows up in the statistics.

Regulation. We follow regulatory change closely, because we have to implement it in our own operations. We see the effects immediately in our daily work. We read regulation in order to comply with it, not merely to comment on it.

The pricing of properties. We follow which properties are moving in the market. We calculate what a property is worth paying in the current market and find out at what price properties can be sold. Buying and selling are not theory but continuous work, and that tells us about the state of the market in a different way than completed statistics do after the fact.

The daily life of our own properties. We see the income and costs of our own investments in real time. A new lease or a tenant giving notice is first a piece of work for us and only then an observation about the rental market.

None of these is a market review on its own. Together they are a feel for the market that cannot be acquired by reading.

“Samla Market Pulse combines the market data available with the practical experience that comes from working in the middle of the properties themselves. We also raise the themes that matter in the market right now,” Lajunen says.

What the site offers

The market review is published four times a year. The first one covers the housing market and includes prices, rents, transaction volumes, supply and the price of financing. On top of the data we add our own view of the situation, and that view is argued with figures the reader can return to.

News and insights are published weekly as a rule, or whenever there is something to say. These are shorter pieces on what has happened in the market and what to make of it.

The site also covers Samla Capital's managed funds, the properties they own and the company's operating principles.

What has changed

Samla Capital has gone through a substantial development as a company. Its values, its visual identity and with them its entire digital presence have been renewed to match where the company stands today.

“The difficult years have forced us to develop our ways of working and to raise the standard of what Samla Capital and the funds it manages do. The phrase ‘built to last’ is not a marketing line. It is like the foundation of a building, and it is what we have been laying over the past year,” Lajunen says.

The market right now

The market into which the new site opens is subdued in Finland. Housing prices are falling for the third consecutive year: the drop was 3.5 per cent in 2024, 2.7 per cent in 2025 and around 3.3 per cent in the first half of this year. In the year ending June 2026, 15 487 housing starts were recorded, the lowest reading of the year so far and close to the floor of the measurement history. A construction project takes one and a half to two years from start to completion, so supply for 2027 and 2028 has largely been decided already. The average interest rate on new housing loans was 3.2 per cent in June 2026. The twelve-month Euribor rose to 2.8 per cent during the spring, against the expectations held earlier in the year. Even so, a Finnish home is cheaper relative to wages than at any point in ten years. Will the direction turn soon? Nobody knows for certain, but we are following the situation closely.

See also

• Ten years, eight countries and one exception
• Where are housing prices heading?
• Price data on housing transactions disappeared from public view

If you want to keep up with the property market, subscribe to Samla Market Pulse.

Disclaimer

This piece is Samla Capital's own news about its activities. It is not investment advice or an investment recommendation, and it is not the marketing or sale of alternative investment funds within the meaning of the Act on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. The article is not an offer or an invitation to subscribe for, buy or sell any financial instrument.

The article is based on public statistical sources and on Samla Capital's own market monitoring. The information has been compiled carefully and the figures have been checked against their sources, but their accuracy is not guaranteed.

The views presented are the author's assessments at the time of writing and may change without separate notice. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance, and the assessments presented are not promises or guarantees. Investment activity always involves the risk of losing the capital invested. Investment decisions should be made on the basis of your own objectives and financial situation, using a specialist where necessary.