International students, Tampere, 6/26 TOAS housing notice

[mrshourula]

The oracle of TOAS has put up a new message for international students coming to study for F08. The news is grim. All fall housing is reserved and if you haven't already applied, don't bother as applications are closed. And if you have applied (and even paid your deposit) you still may not get housing but you can get on a waiting list or ask for a refund. If you're wondering whether you have housing or not, the clear message is "don't contact us, we'll contact you ...eventually

The good news (maybe) is that TUT, UTA, TAMK and PIRAMK have hired their own housing officer, who will start work on July 21 and who will, presumably, compile a list of available private housing and help the student homeless find a place to live.

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NEWS FOR AUTUMN SEMESTER 2008
Important information for international students TOAS’s accommodation for Autumn semester 2008 has now been reserved and you may not apply for autumn semester’s accommodation.

If you have already applied for Autumn semester and not yet received any confirmation on your contract, please wait for the confirmation. Some students will be placed on the queu, if they wish, in case of some accommodation cancellations. We will see the queu situation quite soon and all the students in the queu will be notified of their situation by email.

If you have paid your deposit and you are placed on the queu, you may inform TOAS housing office, if you do not want to queu anymore. We will then need to know your bank details (IBAN, SWIFT, name of the bank and receiver) in order to send back your deposit payment. You may send these details to asuntotoimisto.etutaka.toas.fi.

You may not accommodate yourself in any other accommodation than the one appointed to you.In case of accommodating some friend in your TOAS appartment against TOAS regulations, TOAS has the right to terminate your contract immediately.

Information from universities to international students

TUT, UTA, TAMK and PIRAMK have organized their own housing officer, who will start her work from the 21st of July. We will inform her contact details on our pages on the 20th of July. She may provide information about available apartments for international students. Please note that all of the appartments she can find, will be reserved on a first come – first serve -basis for international students coming to any university in Tampere, so you should act fast.

Please note that you are responsible for arranging accommodation for yourself. You need to ensure that you have somewhere to live before arriving in Tampere as finding an appartment on the spot may take several months. International offices may not provide you any housing or assist you in finding one.

Spring semester 2009 accommodation applications

Next time international students may apply for TOAS accommodation starting from October 2008. Then we may receive applications for the Spring semester 2009. Before applying you need to be sure of being accepted to one of the universities in Tampere.

[E Maya]

That's how it is every year now.
I think that international students usually get a place to live anyway.
Here is an url for privately rented flats for students mainly. It's only in Finnish, sorry! They charge 75% of one months rent for students. I've used them for around 3 times.
https://www.ovv.com/cgi-bin/web_city.cgi?tpk=tre

And here's what they have right now, only flats no rooms available just now.
HUONEISTO KOKO VUOKRA SIJAINTI VAPAA

1h+kk 21 m2 330 EUR Äijänahteentie 20
LAMMINPÄÄ 1.7.

1h+kk 29.5 m2 370 EUR Lielahdenkatu 33
LIELAHTI heti - 15.08.2009

1h+k 40 m2 400 EUR Tuomaankatu 7
HÄRMÄLÄ heti

2h+kk 38 m2 470 EUR Nekalantie 74
NEKALA 1.8.

2h+kk 45 m2 608 EUR Hämeenpuisto 33
KESKUSTA 1.7

2h+k+p 52 m2 610 EUR Soukanlahdenkatu 15
ARMONKALLIO 1.7.

[TampereOwl]

Really no wonder why. Schools admit more and more foreign students every year, most of them from so poor countries that they will never rent private housing, so they just occupy solu rooms and never move out until they graduate...

Yeah, it's the foreigners fault this one isn't it? Nothing to do with TOAS failing to evict people who've graduated.

[Hank W.]

Nothing to do with TOAS failing to evict people who've graduated.

Nothing to do with the council flats being designed to house families with a single mom with five kids on welfare rather than cheap housing for single people working or on pension. Couples can afford a studio rent.

[TampereOwl]

I must have gone the other way then. I can afford to rent privately, indeed I did for the first year of my studies, but I was always on the waiting list for TOAS and when a nice lakeside flat came up, within walking distance of town and uni, €40 cheaper than the previous suburban 'social housing' flat and including electricity and internet, damn straight I'm going to take it and live here as long as I @#$% can. The Finnish people in my neighbouring flats are either 1) mature students, or 2) graduated but staying there because TOAS is too lazy to do something about it.

Personally i think the only reason for a separate student housing association should be to accommodate people who go somewhere else in the summer. Residents should be part of the normal social housing system, which should, in turn, be much much cheaper than it is. TOAS is undercutting them at the moment so there is no reason for people to move out once they have a nice TOAS flat.

[TampereOwl]

Nothing to do with TOAS failing to evict people who've graduated.

Nothing to do with the council flats being designed to house families with a single mom with five kids on welfare rather than cheap housing for single people working or on pension. Couples can afford a studio rent.

There is no shortage of housing in Tampere for single people who are working. It might not be 'nice' or 'what I want', but they can get flats.

[Hank W.]

Well, here its a bit more congested. The demand for small cheap flats is huge.

[TampereOwl]

Well, here its a bit more congested. The demand for small cheap flats is huge.

I can imagine. Are they going to build any cheap flats in the bit they annexed from the bättre folk?

[Hank W.]

Not likely...

[E Maya]

There's also Tamy, I still live in a place I found through them.

The Student Union also has a list of apartments available in the private sector, in case you wish to look for other accommodation besides TOAS. For further information on this possibility, please contact Tamy office starting on July 23rd by telephone +358 3 2230 215 on weekdays 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (during summertime 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.), or drop by at the Student Union office (Kauppakatu 10, 2nd floor.) However, please keep in mind that it is quite difficult to find a flat in Tampere
http://www.tamy.fi/en//index.php?option ... mitstart=4

[mathieu22]

I confirm it is very hard to find an apartment to rent for me:
I am curently studying in Paris and would like to come to TUT for 2semester.
But I need to find a place!!! Just finding housing agencies telephone is hard for me.
Organising to find flatemates to have better price is even harder...

[Pursuivant]

just to say to people trying to find a place and having found a place you cannot afford to be too picky. the chaos is now on with thousands of applications and they are now getting overwhelmed with applications. and in some towns they can offer maybe half the applicants any kind of flats. so it is really a tight situation out there.

[mrshourula]

Yikes!


http://www.aviisi.fi/artikkeli/?num=9/2008&id=b1f7e58

23 July 2008

International students are advised to postpone their exchange period

"I´m in the process of sending out a message to our international housing applicants recommending they either postpone their exchange or study abroad period until the spring term, or cancel it altogether," says Ms. Katri Miettunen from the Tampere Student Housing Foundation (TOAS).

Miettunen has been contacted by 120 international students who are as yet without an apartment. Many of these students have sent their housing applications in good time following TOAS´ instructions and paid the 25-euro application fee. This fee will not be refunded even if TOAS is not able to assign any housing to the applicant.

"You can help improve the housing situation by letting your apartment."

TOAS has a quota of 600 furnished housing units for international students, but this quota has already been used up. “Pirkan opiskelija-asunnot", another student housing firm, has tried to amend the situation by arranging 40 additional housing units for international students.

Each fall term TOAS sets up temporary housing for students who have not yet found an apartment in Tampere. This year this temporary housing is at risk of being over-crowded, since the largest of TOAS locations, Mikontalo, is being repaired. Last year about 50 students had to make use of the temporary housing. There are more available apartments for temporary housing, but this does not solve the problem, since this year students would not have permanent apartments after the temporary housing ends.

TOAS is considering to implement a nightly fee and to raise the deposit payment from 40 to as much as 150 euros, so that students would not use the option of temporary housing any longer than they have to. The nightly fee could be set to three euros, for example. If a student needs accommodation only for a few days, they might not be allowed to enter the temporary housing at all.