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 spring 2023 begins 28 November 2022 and ends 5 January 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 also find more information on AYY’s website.

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. 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.

In the autumn of 2022, we will organise a separate year tag distribution point in Otaniemi. More detailed information will be updated by the end of the summer on AYY’s website.

After paying the student union membership fee via the Oili service, the payment information is registered in Sisu and further on in the Frank system within 1–5 working days. If you pay your membership fee by invoice and deliver the receipt to your study office, the information will be registered within 1–5 working days after the membership fee and attendance information has been updated in the student register.

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, you must submit a receipt of the student union membership fee payment to the student services ([email protected]) during the enrolment period, otherwise your enrolment will not take effect. The bank-issued transaction identification number (archive number, arkistointitunnus) must be visible on the receipt. If you use email or paper mail to submit the student union membership fee receipt, please remember to include your name and student number.

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 2022-2023 is 2 May–2 Sept 2022. 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 28th Nov to 5th Jan 2023 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 and cannot live in AYY apartment. However, it is possible to live in AYY apartment as non-attending for some statutory reasons, like conscription or voluntary military service. In this case, contact housing: housing(at)ayy.fi

Read more about eligibility in AYY apartments

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 Starting Point will help you with these issues. Contact information can be found here: https://into.aalto.fi/display/yhteystiedot/Yhteystiedot

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

AYY offers housing only to bachelor and master level students and exchange students at Aalto University. 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 a bachelor and master level student or exchange student, but your application was still rejected, you will find instructions for submitting a correct attachment here.

Doctoral students do not have the right of residence for AYY housing, but doctoral students can apply for apartments open to all students.

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 gain one extra score for their application to shared apartments. Students coming from outside the metropolitan area can receive two urgency scores for shared apartments. You will find the scoring instructions here.

For applicants with the same score, their position in the queue will be decided by drawing lots in the Domo application system. Thus, the date of application of new students does not affect their position in the queue, and everyone has an equal chance of receiving a housing offer.

Since the queue changes constantly according to the application situation, we are unfortunately unable to estimate the time of receiving housing offers.

Read more in the application instructions.

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

1. New applications have been added to the queue which have a higher score than your application. 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 placed in the queue by drawing lots, which allows new applications to precede your application. Your position in the queue may change on a daily basis.

Only a person who is non-attending for a statutory reason can apply for AYY’s apartment during the non-attendance. These reasons include, for example, performing military or non-military service. If you receive an apartment before the end of your year of non-attendance, you can also receive compensation for the right of residence for the period when you have not lived in AYY’s apartment during your non-attendance.

More information on compensating the right of residence for statutory reasons

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

All AYY’s apartments are offered on the basis of the queue. Since we do not know in advance how many apartments will become vacant or how many applicants will accept the received housing offer, we are unable to estimate the probability and timing of the housing offer.

AYY cannot guarantee housing for every student. There are always more applicants than vacant apartments.

For this reason, we recommend applying for housing from other housing providers as well.

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.

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 position in the queue.

If you reject a housing offer, you will lose the urgency scores and all your applications will be removed from the queue, including the applications you have submitted with a friend or family. After this, you can restore three housing groups back to the queues into their original position in the queue, except for the housing type for which you received the offer. 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

During summer (1 Apr–30 Sept), an apartment can be subleased 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 subleasing 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

When AYY’s services office is closed, you cannot pay the rent with a bank or credit card at our office. It is possible to pay bills at R-kioski and the branches of some banks, for example. A separate transfer/service fee will be charged for the transfer. If you need additional time to pay the rent due to a delay in setting up a bank account, please contact us.

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 all your potential income, such as salary, student aid and housing allowance. However, 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.