Living areas with foreigners and international day cares

jpp · Post by **jpp** » Tue May 06, 2008 3:18 pm

We are an Indian-Finnish couple living in East Helsinki with our 22mth old daughter. We bought a house here because we wanted to stay fairly close to the city and still be able to have a house with a bit of green. We are having lots of trouble getting a paiväkoti / perhepaivähoitaja place for our daughter in the neighborhood, the waiting lists being very long. We also realised that we are probably the only non-Finns in our neighbourhood. My wife's commute to work still takes around 45mins by car during the peak hours!!

Now we are looking to move to an area with the below characterisitcs and would need some advice please ...
1. An area that has a good number of foreigners / mixed families / Finns returning from abroad.
2. An area where there are English / International daycares or any daycare where our daughter will not be the only outsider
3. An area that has fairly good access to the city (preferably not too far from Meilahti where my wife works)
4. If there are restaurants/cafes in the area, that would be a huge plus ... but that might be asking too much?

We know that we would get all that if we lived in a flat near the city (eg Taka-Töölö), but if possible we are looking for a bit of backyard. Your advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

James

**Sponsor:**

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:16 pm

I thought you didn't see any Finns these days in East Helsinki, unless they're from chemically mixed up families

Unless thats your gold-false-tooth coast you're talking about. Well, parts of Espoo pops to mind, though then again I wouldn't necessarily say the daycare or commute would necessarily be any better. One boom area is Kartanonkoski in Vantaa, but commuting downtown again... up where I live in West Vantaa the commute is reasonable... so anywhere "up 120" from meilahtis say munkkivuori/munkkiniemi/pajamäki/pitäjänmäki/konala then up to Espoo and Vantaa in the corner area might do. Depends on the budget a bit.

EP · Post by EP » Tue May 06, 2008 4:29 pm

My wife's commute to work still takes around 45mins by car during the peak hours!!

That is not much. But I suspect she would make it a lot faster using trams/metro/busses. You can easily check using this journey planner: http://www.ytv.fi/eng

You get to Meilahti faster from Espoo than eastern Helsinki, using either a car or busses. Leppävaara, Tapiola, Kilo, Otaniemi and so on. Or Meilahti itself or Lehtisaari.

EP · Post by EP » Tue May 06, 2008 4:32 pm

2. An area where there are English / International daycares or any daycare where our daughter will not be the only outsider

Why call her "an outsider"? In a group of children that age nobody is an outsider, only adults can think something like that.

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Tue May 06, 2008 5:03 pm

Henk wrote:munkkivuori/munkkiniemi/pajamäki/pitäjänmäki/konala

The first two are 99% apartments, there are OKT at the end of tram line 4, but they are astronomically expensive.

EP wrote:Leppävaara, Tapiola, Kilo, Otaniemi and so on. Or Meilahti itself or Lehtisaari.

Don't know of many houses in Otaniemi, there's a couple by the stables I suppose, and the apartments there don't come up for sale very often.

Meilahti and Lehtisaari - prices can be pretty high for the apartments, my wife's great Aunt has an apartment on the latter... the few houses with gardens out there are surely beyond the reach of most couples with a 2 year old kid.

There are plenty of OKT in Olari, Mankka, out past Niittykumpu (other side of Tapiola) with morning traffic I suppose it would be 30-40 minutes to drive from those places to Meilahti.

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Tue May 06, 2008 6:01 pm

meihlahti is expensive and there are not many appartment buildings there. I live in Lehtisaari in a flat (all the appartment building are owned by a parish in Espoo) and they are pretty dear. There are a few houses with garden, dead nice but count about €2500 if not €3000 per month for the rent.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:16 pm

There are plenty of ex-pat/foreign families living in southern Espoo all along the Länsiväylä from Westend to Saunalahti (huge area). There are English speaking daycares in Olari, Westend, Niittykumpu etc (and even in Kauklahti but that's maybe a bit too far).

In Matinkylä it is harder to find a backyard (but not impossible) but there are loads of small cdistricts with rivitalo in the Matinkylä / Olari area.

But maybe you need to think further ahead than daycare... where will your child go to school? if you want a primary school that teaches in English then there are two: Olari (Komeetta) or Leppavaara (Postipuu). Or Helsinki (The English School, Maunula etc). There are also bilingual schools in Espoo: Tähtiniitty (Olari), Kilonpuisto (Kilo) and Jalavapuisto (Espoonkeskus).

http://www.espoo.fi/default.asp?path=1; ... 1589BFB5A1
http://www.espoo.fi/default.asp?path=1; ... 7209;63720

As for access to Meilahti, there are buses which run frequently, you can check on the journey planner. Quickest route by car is through Kuusisaari and Lehtisaari and it's OK, busy but OK.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:45 pm

sinikala wrote: Don't know of many houses in Otaniemi, there's a couple by the stables I suppose, and the apartments there don't come up for sale very often.

Well, on the other side of the ring actually from the stables. But I thought all them expats moving to Finland were philthy rich with cars and mansions and gilt-arse jobs with no Finnish needed... what gives, got savings in USD?

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:56 pm

Hank W. wrote:
sinikala wrote: Don't know of many houses in Otaniemi, there's a couple by the stables I suppose, and the apartments there don't come up for sale very often.
Well, on the other side of the ring actually from the stables. But I thought all them expats moving to Finland were philthy rich with cars and mansions and gilt-arse jobs with no Finnish needed... what gives, got savings in USD?

Another non-sensical

powered post from the Hankster.

Other side of the Kehä 1 from the stables is Tapiola.

The rest was 18 carat gibberish.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:55 pm

Yes, but theres a nice footpath that goes underneath the ring there, so I've walked about there. So also theres a load of houses in Westend, whats the problem? If one can't afford the gold tooth coast then its Espoon Keskus...

Xochiquetzal · Post by **Xochiquetzal** » Wed May 07, 2008 4:09 pm

Southern Espoo really is the way to go. It also seems that the more East you go, the higher the concentration of furriners. It's expensive to live in Espoo but it's also nice.

jpp · Post by **jpp** » Wed May 07, 2008 4:34 pm

thanks everyone for your comments.
we are looking at the pitäjänmäki / konala / pakila in helsinki
OR in leppävaara / kilo / friisinmäki / nittykumpu / nuottoniemi areas

anyone living in these areas? want to share your experience of living in these areas please?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Wed May 07, 2008 5:17 pm

Pitäjänmäki is OK, you could also look in Marttila (the old veterans village) traffic gets a bit congested. Konala is a bit better in that aspect... and then going over to the Espoo sides west towards Mäkkylä-Leppävaara or then Uusimäki north of Konala... its new 2005-6 built but some of the floorplans are really weird.

bavarian-girl · Post by **bavarian-girl** » Tue May 13, 2008 8:21 am

We live in Haukilahti, Espoo.
This and the surroundings seem to be an area with quite some foreigners.
I do not really know aboug daycare yet. There is an english-speaking one in Nittikumppu (some 3 km from here) and a french-speaking right next door.
Access to city is excellent. 14 min. by bus to Kamppi.
There is both a restaurant and a cafe by the sea. One on a water tower, a eco-pakistani one and some in the Iso Omena shopping center.

If you want to know more / specifics just send a PM.

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