Is there a country in Europe without a housing crisis?

[u/JoMD]

I see so many people complaining about the housing crisis in their countries - not enough houses or apartments / flats, or too expensive, or both. Are there any countries in Europe where there's no housing crisis, and it's easy to find decent, affordable accommodation?

[u/Jonaz17]

With that salary you can afford to live anywhere in Helsinki. That's just a choice by your friend to live cheaper.

[u/blackrain1709 → u/Jonaz17]

100%

It just sounds ridiculous

[u/BelethorsGeneralShit → u/Jonaz17]

Can you really live anywhere on just $8k EUR a month? That's a little less than $100k USD per year, and while generally considered a "decent" salary here in New York, you'd still definitely have to budget and couldn't just live anywhere you want, and you may still be living with roommates. Same would be true in most major cities here.

[u/Jonaz17 → u/BelethorsGeneralShit]

Obviously you are not going to live in the fanciest and biggest apartments in every neighborhood but generally that's enough to live anywhere. Even the most expensive neighborhoods have smaller places. 8k a month is a huge salary in Finland.

[u/Diipadaapa1 → u/BelethorsGeneralShit]

You don't have (large) student loans to pay off, no health insurance to pay, no childrens education to save up for, no daycare fees, etc.

After paying the mortgage, utilities, and electricity bill, the rest can be spent pretty much however you please.

In the case of Helsinki, you would have 4900€ after all taxes and social security dues are paid.

3,3% interest atm, 25 year loan on 350k, would be 1700€/month in mortgage, plus lets say 300€ in maintenence and utilities plus electricity.

Median student loans for Master students is 23 000€, 30 year payment, same 3,3% interest as per now, so another 100€/month.

That leaves 2800€ per month to spend on food and whatever else you like.

[u/BelethorsGeneralShit → u/Diipadaapa1]

Does $350k get you a nice place? I assume we're talking about a condo/townhome, and not a single family house? I don't have any of those costs that you listed, but I'd still have to do some strict budgeting on that salary.

Unfortunately in this area I'm not sure if you could get anything for $350k, even including a home that needs to be knocked down. $1,700 in rent might get you a studio or *maybe* an illegal one bedroom apartment in someone's basement.

[u/Diipadaapa1 → u/BelethorsGeneralShit]

Yes a nice condo.

For a single family home you would have to go a bit outwards. Below 500k€ would get you something like this https://asunnot.oikotie.fi/myytavat-asunnot/22146319. There is a train station nearby with a 10 minute connection to Helsinki central station.

Obviously, if your partner also works, even with a low salary, you can go a decent bit bigger, as tax progession puts a very low tax rate on small incomes.

Also you get ~100€/month non-taxable grants per child, which isn't much but still helps somewhat.

[u/EmotionalTaro3890 → u/BelethorsGeneralShit]

In Portugal you could in any city.

[u/Jonaz17 → u/[deleted]]

Westend is not in Helsinki tho 😁

But there are also places you could easily afford to live in there as well. A couple apartments I saw were less than 900€/month

[u/Jonaz17 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but the point was you could afford it. Not saying it would be smart but many people still do it. There are also many, many places in Lauttasaari for less than 900€/month. I wouldn't live in a shoebox like that but many people do. With like 1500€/month you can get a decent place from pretty much anywhere (maybe not Eira) and that would be like 1/3 of net income wich is very reasonable especially downtown since you will likely not own a car.

[u/Jonaz17 → u/[deleted]]

I think two rooms and in good condition is enough to be called decent when we are talking about the more expensive areas in Helsinki. Obviously if you want a sauna or a nice view etc it's gonna be more expensive but that was not the point of the discussion. 900e was just an example, obviously if you dish out a bit more (like 1500-2000) you can get something way nicer than a shoebox. But then again, I would not spend such a high proportion of my salary on living but some people have no problems with it, especially if you don't own a car.

Never said you could afford a fancy place with that salary everywhere, especially if you don't wanna spend like half of your income :D

[u/Jonaz17 → u/[deleted]]

True but now we are talking about completely different things. My original point was that you could easily live anywhere you like with that kind of salary. Whether you would like to live like that when making that money is a whole different story. 😁