Guide for Exchange & Master’s degree students

Student housing in Kuopio

Kuopas (Kuopio Student Housing Company) builds and maintains student housing in Kuopio. More than 3000 students and their families live in Kuopas’ apartments.

Kuopio Student Housing Company (In English)
Kuopion Opiskelija-asunnot Oy (In Finnish)
Address: Torikatu 15, 70110 Kuopio, Finland
tel. +358 (0)20 710 9740
e-mail customerservice[at]kuopas.fi

This is a general guide for Exchange & Master’s degree students.

Apartments for exchange students

In Kuopio, international students mostly live in furnished shared apartments. Each student has their own room with a lock, but kitchen and bathroom is shared with 1-2 other students of same gender.

If you are coming to Kuopio with your family, you can apply for a family apartment. Family apartments’ sizes vary from two room apartments to three room apartments. Family apartments are mainly meant for families, but you can also rent them with your friends, if we don’t have any families waiting for an apartment. We have furnished family apartments in Katiskaniementie 6.

Kuopas has 29 apartment buildings around the town located within 0,5–8 km from the UEF and Savonia Kuopio Campus. Most of our international students live in furnished shared apartments in Rauhalahti (Katiskaniementie 6) and some in Puijonlaakso (Kuntokuja 2). We also have some furnished studios in Särkiniementie 30 (Särki). If you have any special wishes about your apartment’s location, you should mention about it in the application. Unfortunately, we can’t usually fullfil all special requests concerning the apartment during the fall period.

If we don’t offer you the apartment you chose in the application, it means that we don’t have it available. If that is the case, we always try to offer you something similar.

Rent

A furnished room from a shared apartment is about 279€–382€ (per person) per month. The rent for one room in an unfurnished shared apartment is about 225€–410€ (per person) per month. The rent for family apartment depends on the size and location of the apartment. The rent for family apartments starts from 490€ /month. Unfurnished studios / one room apartments start from around 400 €, but please notice, that studio apartments are not usually available immediately, so the applicant may have to wait for an offer for an available studio apartment.

The rent can only be paid by using a bank transfer. We can’t take cash in our office, unfortunately.

What does the rent include?

The rent in all our shared apartment includes water, electricity, and heating. In family apartments the rent does not include electricity. Parking is always extra (10–20 €/month). All apartments are equipped with fridge and cooking facilities, basic lighting and shower curtains. All shared apartments have a kitchen table and chairs in the common kitchen.

A furnished apartment also contains a bed (with mattress, blanket and pillow, but no linen), a desk, a couple of chairs and a bookcase. A new mattress, blanket and pillow are delivered to the apartment during the first business day of the month. The apartment may have the old bed set left from the previous tenant. The logistics company will use a key to access the rooms if no one is home. We have few furnished family apartments in Katiskaniementie 6.

There is a free Internet connection (20 Mbit) in every Kuopas apartment. You can upgrade it if you need a faster connection. If you move to a family apartment or a shared apartment that is not furnished, you can loan a modem for free from our office, if we have them left. All furnished shared apartments have a modem.

Laundry room is always free of charge. There is also a sauna in almost every Kuopas building. Common sauna turn is free once a week. If you prefer to go to sauna by yourself, you can reserve your own sauna turn (1 hour/week) for 20 € per month.

Please be prepared to bring, rent or buy your own sheets, pillow case, towels and dishes. Survival packages (includes the very basics: sheets, saucepan, frying pan, plate, fork, knife and spoon) are available for international students from the UEF Student Union (for uni students) and Savonia (for Savonia students). The monthly bus ticket costs about 40 € which you might have to add to the living costs. More information can be found from Kuopio region public transport’s (Vilkku) website.

If your apartment offer mentions that you will need to buy your own electricity, you need to make your own electricity contract. This is usually the case in family apartments. There are multiple electricity providers in Finland and you can make a contract with any of those companies. Here are one company’s instructions for making an electricity contract: Instructions for electricity contract

Apply for student housing by filling out an application in our website

You can apply for housing as soon as you have received the official Letter of Acceptance from the University of Eastern Finland / Savonia UAS but no sooner than six months before your arrival in Kuopio. Please take time to read the instructions in the application.

Application deadline for housing are as follows:
15 June
– For Autumn semester (Aug-Dec)
– Full academic year (Aug-May)
15 November
– For Spring semester (Jan-May)

These application deadlines are for the busiest applying seasons. You can apply and receive a housing offer at any time of the year.

If you are a student coming to Finland from outside the EU, we recommend that you apply for accommodation only after you have received your residence permit. Unfortunately, we cannot cancel your tenancy agreement if you are unable to arrive to Finland.

After you have filled out the online application, you will receive an email from Kuopas confirming that your application has been received. Check your trash mail also. Keep checking your email regularly as we will send the offer by email. Usually you will receive the offer about one month before your planned arrival, but it can come sooner. You will have only few days to decide, if you will take the offered apartment / room or not.

We get the information about the most popular available rooms one month ahead. If you are applying for a room starting on 1ˢᵗ January, you will get a proposal for tenancy agreement at latest in the beginning of December. If you are applying for a room on autumn semester, you will get proposal for tenancy agreement at latest in the beginning of July. In the summer the offer may come in a shorter notice time.

The offer contains the address of your new apartment/room, its type, size, rent and the starting date of the rental period. Accept the offer by paying the deposit payment by the due date which is mentioned in the offer. Deposit payment is 250 € for a room in a shared apartment and 400 € for a family apartment and studios. If you don’t pay, Kuopas will not reserve the room for you. Please note that if you don’t act in time, the offer will be terminated and the room / apartment is offered to another applicant.

The deposit payment will be returned to your bank account in your home country within one month after your departure from Kuopio if you have full filled all obligations to Kuopas (e.g. returned the key, paid bills and rent) and the apartment is clean and in good condition. Read more about moving out here.

Please note, that in addition to the deposit payment, you are also liable to pay the rent starting from the date your tenancy agreement has come to force. The rent and other fees are due the 5ᵗʰ of each month. If the payment is delayed, collection company Intrum Oy will charge normal overdue charges and interest for overdue. Your rent payment information can be found from the rent agreement. You can pay multiple rents in one payment, if you like.

The demand for student apartments is very high in the Fall period. Because of this, we might offer you the apartment starting from 1ˢᵗ of August, even if your exchange would start in September. This means, that you also have to pay for the rent of August. If you want to be sure that you have an apartment, it is a good idea to accept the early offer. If you don’t want to accept it, we will offer you an apartment starting from September later, if they are available.

Please note that tenancy agreements usually start at the beginning of the month. If you have a different need, please contact our customer service.

Notice of termination

A tenant is personally responsible for giving notice once studies have come to an end.

The notice period for a tenant with a tenancy contract that is open ended is one calendar month. Usually all contracts with exchange students and Master’s degree students are open ended. It means that the contract doesn’t have a set ending date. If the contract is for some reason fixed (example 1.1.2019-30.4.2019), the tenant does not need to give a notice of termination.

Example on notice time: If you give your Notice of termination during January, your rent contract will continue until the last day of February, and you have to pay the full rent for February. Those living in a family residence with a single contract must sign the Notice of termination together. They key must be returned on the last day of your rent contract to Kuopas’ office. If you use the mailbox, put it in a letter and write your name and Kuopas address to the key.

The notice of termination must be given in writing in Kuopas’ office (also by letter) or by scanning it and sending it by email. The notice must always be signed.

Where can I get more information?

Please read all our guides for more information. If you are not sure what to do, you are always welcome to contact our customer service.

• Applying Quick guide ← Read this before applying. Also read the instructions in the application.
• Student apartment locations ← Most of our exchange students live in furnished shared apartments in Katiskaniementie 6 (Katiska) and some in Kuntokuja 2 (Pankkola) and Särkiniementie 30 (Särki). If you are on an exchange, we suggest you to apply at least to those locations, as they are the only ones with furnished apartments. Master’s degree students often rent apartments and rooms also from other locations and buy furniture from Kuopio.
• Application, apartment types and rents
• Moving in Quick guide ← You should read this after applying or at least before you come to Kuopio. It will tell you when you can get the keys etc.
• Tenant’s guide ← This is the general guide about living in Kuopas’ apartments. You should read this before coming to Kuopio.
• Moving out Quick Guide ← Read this when you arrive here. Please remember to send us the Notice of termination when you leave.
• Living in Kuopas apartment
• Termination of contract and graduation