Frequently asked questions about housing and member services

In order to enrol as an attending bachelor and master level student at Aalto University, you must also pay the membership fee of Aalto University Student Union (AYY). Enrolment period for the academic year 2023–2024 begins 2 May 2023 and ends 1 September 2023.

Instructions for paying the membership fee for new students, students continuing their studies and exchange students can be found on AYY’s website.

University students and students in universities of applied sciences entitled to the services of the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) will pay the health care fee directly to Kela. Kela’s payment instructions can be found here.

AYY is unable to check whether you have already paid the fee - please contact Kela in unclear situations.

You can get your student card via Frank or Pivo. On their website, you will find card options and more information about the cards: frank.fi & pivo.fi

For your student status to be valid on a plastic student card, you will need a year tag for your card. AYY’s Services Office only gives a year tag for AYY’s student card for members who have paid AYY’s membership fee from 1st August onwards. Student cards previously issued by the former Student Union of the Helsinki School of Economics (KY), Student Union of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TOKYO) and the Student Union of Helsinki University of Technology (TKY) are also regarded as AYY’s student cards.

After paying the student union membership fee, the payment information is registered in the Frank system within 1–5 working days.

Please note that the student status of new students will be valid at the beginning of the academic term. Thus, even if you have already enrolled and paid the membership fee in May–July, the digital student card will not work until the beginning of August. It is not possible to order a plastic student card before the beginning of August.

More info: Student Card FAQ

If you are a new student, you do not need an Aalto ID to enrol. Make sure that you use the new students’ OILI service.

If your right to study is valid, first activate your Aalto user ID. After activating your Aalto user ID, you can enrol in OILI service.

If your right to study is not valid, you have to contact the student services ([email protected]) for instructions to pay the student union membership fee. You can use Aalto user ID after enrolment.

If enrolment and payment of the student union membership fee is not possible with the electronic services, please contact Aalto student services ([email protected]) for payment instructions.

You can enrol as a non-attending student during the enrolment period. Please note that the enrolment as a non-attending student can be changed to an attending student outside the enrolment period but not vice versa. You can only change your attending-status to non-attending during the enrolment period.

Enrolment period for the academic year 2023-2024 is 2 May–1 Sept 2023. It is advisable to enrol as an attending or non-attending student for the entire academic year. There is also a separate enrolment period for the spring term from 27th Nov 2023 to 5th Jan 2024 during which you can change your enrolment information if necessary.

If you have enrolled as a non-attending student, you will not be entitled to student benefits during this time.

AYY offers its members several services, such as affordable student housing, rental facilities, advocacy services and various benefits. As a member of the Student Union, you will also receive a student card to prove your student status. You can find all membership benefits on AYY’s website.

Doctoral students can join as members of the Student Union if they wish to do so. The membership benefits of doctoral students are considerably more limited than those of bachelor and master level students. More information on the benefits of doctoral students can be found here.

Aalto student services will help you with these issues.

More detailed information on Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) student discount

AYY members can make reservations directly in the TILA booking system. You can log in with your own Aalto user ID and find instructions on how to make reservations on the front page of TILA. As a new student, you can make reservations as soon as you have received the Aalto user ID. New students can book facilities at member rate from 1 Aug onwards.

If you are not a member of AYY, please fill in the reservation request form. You can find more information on rental facilities, facility usage hours and the price list on our website.

You can access facilities with the access code, which can be found in your booking information in the TILA system under ‘Show the code’. The access code will be activated at the start of the booking. Please note that the code will only be activated after AYY's services office has confirmed the reservation.

The keys to the van, AK cabin, the studio and the craft room are available from AYY's services office during the opening hours. Please note the possible exceptional opening hours.

We offer apartments on average two months before the apartment becomes available. Apartments for the autumn are offered during June–July.

We cannot estimate the probability and timing of the housing offer because we don’t know how many apartments will become vacant or how many students will accept their housing offer.

AYY residents may sublease their apartments for the duration of exchange studies, for example, and you can search for these apartments at Aalto Marketplace,Teekkari Village’s Market on Facebook or on @aaltomarketplace channel on Telegram.

AYY offers housing only to Aalto University students who are members of the Student Union. If the attachment you have provided does not prove that you are Aalto University student entitled for housing, your application will be rejected. The most common reason for rejecting an attachment is that it cannot be connected with the applicant.

If you are an exchange student, please attach the exchange student application you have submitted to Aalto University. You can save the application in the PDF format.

In friend apartments, both applicants must have the right of residence. If this condition is not met, we will reject the application. If you apply for housing with your spouse, choose the family application option.

AYY’s aim is that as many new students as possible will have an apartment right at the beginning of their studies, so that students have the opportunity to get on with their studies immediately. For this reason, new students' applications to shared apartments are prioritized.

New degree and exchange students will be informed about the granting of a place of study at different times. For reasons of equity, the submission date of a housing application does not affect new students’ opportunities to receive shared housing.

The order of housing offers for new students is drawn. Therefore, new applications can also be placed before previously submitted applications, even if they are equally urgent. Due to the draw, AYY cannot estimate the applicant’s possibility to receive a housing offer.

Applications are organized primarily based on their scores and only secondarily based on their submission dates, so the order keeps constantly changing. There are practically three reasons for a change in the position.

1. New applications with a higher score have been made. For example, applicants with children. Check also Scoring instructions.
2. Your application score has changed during queuing.
3. Applications of new students and exchange students are organized by drawing lots, which allows new applications to precede your application.

You can only apply for AYY housing during your non-attendance if you are not attending for statutory reasons. However, you will not receive housing until you have enrolled as attending at the university. Therefore, if you apply for housing in advance, set your desired moving date to the beginning of your studies.

The preferred date of moving is the day on which you can receive the apartment at the earliest. It is important to keep the preferred date of moving up to date, as we offer apartments accordingly.

You might not receive a housing offer for the desired moving date, but we do not offer housing before the desired moving date. Changing the moving date does not affect your chances of getting a housing offer.

If your situation changes, please update the preferred moving date in your application in the Domo application system. It is the applicant’s responsibility to keep the information in the application up to date. Editing of the date of moving does not affect your chances of getting an housing offer.

If you reject a housing offer, your need for housing will no longer be considered urgent and all your applications will be deleted, including the ones you have made with your friend or family. After this, you can restore three housing groups to active status, except for the housing group for which you received the offer.

If you want to apply for the same housig group again, create a new application. A housing group means location + housing type. Exceptions are studios in Otaniemi (Miestentie) and Teekkari Village, which are different housing groups. More information on housing types can be found here.

A housing group means location + housing type. Exceptions are studios in Otaniemi (Miestentie) and Teekkari Village, which are different housing groups. More information on housing types can be found here.

The start date of the lease cannot be postponed. If we allowed this opportunity, the apartments would be vacant at times, which would have an increasing effect on the rental prices of the apartments. A tenant’s obligation to pay the rent begins on the start date of the lease. If you have any questions about the payment of rent or deposit, you can contact our financial administration with rent-form or deposit-form.

More about rental affairs and deposits

If you need to secondary lease your apartment for summer months, you can lease it until 30th Sept. Please read the instructions carefully!

During summer (1 Apr–30 Sept), an apartment can be leased for a maximum of four months to anyone and for any reason. Outside of summer, an apartment can be subleased to anyone, but not for any reason.

Please read the instructions carefully!

Unfortunately, we cannot be flexible about a legal notice period. The notice period for an apartment is always a full calendar month. The notice period is calculated from the last day of the calendar month during which the notice was issued. For example, if you terminate your lease on 14 Sept, your lease will expire on 31 Oct. The first possible termination date is the start date of the lease. Termination can be done by tenants at Domo.

Yes. A tenant’s obligation to pay the rent begins on the start date of the lease. If you have any questions about the payment of rent or deposit, you can contact our financial administration via rent payment form.

Read more about rental affairs and deposit

You cannot pay the rent with a bank or credit card at our office. If you need additional time to pay the rent due to a delay in setting up a bank account, please contact us with the rent payment form.

In the Monthly Revenue field, enter your own estimate of your earnings. If your earnings vary from month to month, you can estimate your average monthly earnings yourself. Include your earnings and capital income, such as wages and salary allowances. Student financial aid and housing allowance are not counted as income.

Sources of income do not need to be reported. If you estimate that you have no income at the beginning of your studies, enter 0 € in the field.

In the Wealth field, enter your estimate of the value of your property. Assets include savings, investments and real estate. If you have a property that cannot be used to arrange housing in the metropolitan area (such as a heritage summer cottage in another locality), this does not need to be included.

Income and property must be very large to have an impact on your housing application. So you can count on your own assessment without any worries. More information on the ranking of applications based on income can be found on our website.

It’s natural that apartments heat up in the summer heat. The best possible way to cool down the apartment is to ventilate as efficiently as possible at night and early in the morning when the outside temperature is at its lowest. Try to cross ventilate your apartment. You can also improve ventilation by placing a fan in front of the window to blow cool air in or warm air out. 
 
Keep the windows, blinds and curtains closed during the day to minimise the amount of sunlight entering the apartment. Also avoid using the oven.
 
If the temperature in your apartment constantly feels too hot, act as follows:

1. Do the above cooling measures regularly.
2.  Measure the temperature: Measure the temperature of the apartment from the living height, i.e., about 1.2-1.5 metres in a place that is not exposed to direct sunlight, for example next to an interior wall. The temperature should remain below 32 degrees with the exception of occasional exceedances.
3. If the temperature is constantly above 32 degrees, please document the cooling measures you have taken and the method of measuring the temperature, and contact AYY’s housing services ([email protected]) to agree on further measures.

AYY apartments are rented unfurnished. You can look for second-hand furniture at Aalto Marketplace, Teekkari Village’s Market on Facebook or on @aaltomarketplace channel on Telegram.

AYY does not offer housing for summer. We offer apartments to new students from 1 June onwards. You must be a member of AYY to receive housing. Sometimes AYY residents sublease their apartments for the duration of summer jobs, for example. You can look for these apartments at Aalto Marketplace, Teekkari Village’s Market on Facebook or on @aaltomarketplace channel on Telegram.

You can apply for housing as soon as you have received a place of study at Aalto. However, the membership fee must be paid by the time your lease begins.

After submitting your application, you can only update the desired moving date, remove apartments from your application and edit your contact and personal information in your profile.

You cannot add apartments to a valid application. If you want to apply for more apartments or want to change the price range to apply for more expensive housing, please submit a new application. You may have several valid applications at the same time.

You can also pick up the keys after the moving day from AYY's services office during opening hours.

If you cannot pick up the keys yourself, you can authorize another person to pick up the keys for you with a power of attorney. The person picking up the key must have a printed power of attorney with them. If printing is not possible, send the power of attorney by e-mail both to the person picking up the key and to the address [email protected] before the moving date.

You can also exchange keys with the previous tenant. In this case, the out-moving tenant delivers the signed key exchange agreement to the service office on the day of the move. Before you sign the key exchange agreement, check the condition of the apartment. By signing the key exchange agreement, you also accept the condition of the apartment. If you don't have the previous resident's contact information, you can send them a message via Domo's contact feature.

The services office cannot give you the keys before the official moving day, even if the apartment was empty or the previous tenant had returned the keys.

You can install a dishwasher in your apartment if there is a place and connections for the dishwasher.

• The dishwasher may only be installed by an authorised plumber company that provides an installation certificate.
• You should also have home insurance, which compensates for damage caused by a broken or leaking dishwasher, among other things.
• If you need to remove a kitchen cupboard when you install the dishwasher, make sure to store the cupboard and the doors.
• When you move out, you have to take the dishwasher with you, re-install the cupboard, and block the inlet and outlet connections of the dishwasher.

If you have a standard battery-powered smoke detector, it is your responsibility to change the battery or to get a new smoke detector. Please remember to test the smoke detector once a month and change the battery once a year.

Problems with a smoke detector connected to the power grid must always be reported to the maintenance company.

Poor ventilation can be the reason for stale air in the bathroom. It is the responsibility of the resident to clean the bathroom exhaust air valve regularly to ensure proper ventilation. Every time you have showered, you should wipe the bathroom floor dry with a squeegee, for example.

Many apartments have replacement air valves on top of the windows. If your windows have these valves, keep them open to ensure that ventilation works properly.

You should always contact your own  maintenance company. The maintenance company will check the device and order a repair or a new device if necessary.