City dwellers wish to have their own sauna, more storage space and a separate home office

In 2021, the popularity of private saunas within apartments has increased among people living in terraced houses and apartment buildings in cities.

This year, clearly more than half* (56%) said they wanted a sauna in their own apartment, even though it takes up space. The figure has risen steadily from 2019, when it was 50%, and from 2020, when it was 52%.

This year, the statement “I would rather use the housing company’s shared sauna and allocate the space in my apartment for something else” was chosen by 31% of the respondents (2020: 37% and 2019: 38%).

These results are from the Sustainable Urban Environments barometer**, which is a survey among more than 1,000 Finnish city dwellers commissioned by YIT and conducted by Prior Konsultointi in September 2021.

The barometer survey was aimed at revealing the types of urban environments Finns would like to see developed. The participating city dwellers express their views on various themes, such as home, work and urban environment and transport. The barometer was conducted for the fourth time this year. In part, the results are compared to those of the previous surveys.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly turned people’s focus to homes. When you have spent more time at home, certain basic needs have begun to become more prominent. Another factor highlighting the need for a sauna was the fact that many public saunas at swimming pools and gyms were closed for a long time,” says Marko Oinas, Vice President, Strategy and Development, Housing Finland and CEE segment.

This year, the barometer also looked into whether the respondents’ apartments have a balcony, a parking space, a view of nature, a separate kitchen, an open-plan kitchen, a sauna in the apartment, plenty of storage space, a separate home office/guest room, a yard of their own and a separate utility room, as well as which of these the respondents would like for their own apartment (n=1,005).

Most of all, city dwellers wished to have plenty of storage space in their homes. This was wished for by 39% of respondents, while 38% felt that everything was already in order in this respect.

The second most common wish (29%) was one’s own sauna. A total of 41% of the respondents already had a sauna of their own.
A separate home office and/or guest room was wished for by 28% of the respondents, while 27% already had them at home.
A total of 25% wished to have a view of nature in their apartment (49% already had it) and 23% wished for a yard of their own (26% already had it).

A sauna in the apartment, plenty of storage space and a yard were rare especially among Helsinki residents but half had a view of the nearby nature.

For further information, please contact:
Marko Oinas, Vice President, Strategy and Development, Housing Finland and CEE segment, YIT Finland Ltd, tel. +358 (0)40 506 7430, marko.oinas@yit.fi 
Hanna Malmivaara, SVP, Communications, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 40 561 6568, hanna.malmivaara@yit.fi

*Respondents: people living in terraced houses and apartment buildings (n=837)

Sustainable Urban Environments 2021
**The Sustainable Urban Environments barometer was being conducted for the fourth time this year. The survey is targeted at the residents of eight cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Kuopio. The data was collected by an online panel on 15–23 September 2021. There were 1,005 respondents. The sample is representative of the 18–75-year-old population of the participating cities in terms of the respondents’ age and gender as well as the size of each city.

YIT is the largest Finnish and a significant North European development and construction company with a strong customer focus and clear mission to create better living environments. We develop and build functional homes for sustainable living, future-proof public and commercial buildings and infrastructure for smoother flow of people, businesses and society. We employ 7,400 professionals in ten countries: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Our revenue in 2020 was EUR 3.1 billion. YIT Corporation’s share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Oy. www.yitgroup.com