Buying a rivitalo/kerrostalo

[OrangeCrush]

I'd like to second that! Props!

[reindeer]

sorry I do not have any constructive thing to add to the discussions, but your post is one hell of lovely and informative, I need to save it for my reference. Thank you

Yes it's very helpful! Thank you JukkaM!

[reindeer]

Danske: In my case* _I_N_S_A_N_E_ fixed rules. For customer matching their standard form, could be reasonable, at least margin was competitive.

I got 0.9% margin for 250K loan but they require me to move the account from Nordea to their bank. Btw, does 0.9% margin sound reasonable at this time?

-Nordea: Sticky organisation "...but we have this rule...", #@¤¤§# service, incompetent personnel at desk and 1 month+ queue for that only specialist hiding somewhere. Reasonable interest margins. Probably cheapest, if You do not buy/sell apartments or re-structure loans frequently. Choice for person who can bend to banks schedules and outdated routines. Quill and pigeons needed to communicate. Aggressive marketing for poor and expensive securities products, be careful not to bite the hook.

They seem to offer a lot of flexibility such as unemployment/accident insurance, interest caps etc (as opposed to Danske for example) but I had not-so-nice experience with their customer service on Netbank as they never replied my messages as they promised.

-Aktia: Competitive loan offer, quick response and good service. Having some of their expensive-on-entire-new-level financial insurance products (sijoitusvakuutus) would have been mandatory to get loan, which made offer as a whole pretty unreasonable.

I have a meeting with Aktia tomorrow and lets see how it goes. I have seen on this forum some people recommend Aktia and that's why I want to give them a try.

[Pursuivant]

Also remember, you will get no insurance on the mortgage onless you know finnish/swedish

[reindeer]

Also remember, you will get no insurance on the mortgage onless you know finnish/swedish

I was in a meeting at Aktia branch this morning and had good impression about their customer service, at least it seemed so to me. The women named Julia there tried to explain everything very clearly to me even though she said her English is not so good. It's true that they tried to sell, along with the housing loan, lots of other things such as life insurance, unemployment/accident insurance, car/home insurance etc but I think this is quite normal and Nordea has also tried to offer me those and they're all optional. Of course, if you buy more of their insurance products, you'll get, in return, even better margin and possibility of becoming their premium customer (if you take life insurance of at least 100K and saving at least 200euro/month to account at their bank). My margin (if I only take the housing loan) is 0.8% and at least it sounds better than what Danske has offered (0.9%). The downside is that they don't have services in English on their Website but the woman said they'll explain everything in English before you can sign the papers. So, yes, you can take the insurance even when you don't know Finnish/Swedish.

Some info about the offers I got for my loan (250K) at different banks:

- Danske: Euribor 12kk, margin 0.9%, opening fee 625euro
- Nordea: Euribor 12kk, temporary margin 1.55%, opening fee 1000euro, optional työttömyyden/sairausden vakuutus, with interest rate caps
- Aktia: Eurobor 12kk, margin 0.8%, opening fee 800euro, optional henkilö/työttömyyden/sairausden vakuutus/turva, margin will be lower if you buy more products

[GmoDelft]

useful thread.. i am planning to buy also in espoo..

[riku2]

HYPO: Service was in range I thought was reserved for those who ask 100M€ loans

I took out my mortgage with Hypo (several years ago). The service I got was also quite amazing. I was invited into the boardroom for a discussion with one of the senior managers, with huge paintings of past company directors hanging on the wall. And all this in English since I'd only arrived in Finland a month earlier.

[reindeer]

useful thread.. i am planning to buy also in espoo..

I am also looking for somewhere in Espoo. Haven't found anything yet since I'm not very familiar with it but the bottom line is that it shouldn't take more than 30-40mins to Kamppi by bus/train.

[reindeer]

I took out my mortgage with Hypo (several years ago). The service I got was also quite amazing. I was invited into the boardroom for a discussion with one of the senior managers, with huge paintings of past company directors hanging on the wall. And all this in English since I'd only arrived in Finland a month earlier.

Sounds good! I may also want to give it a try even though I got a quite good official offer from Aktia today: 0.68% margin if I also take henkivakuutus, lainaturva, 200e/month saving.

[betelgeuse]

Sounds good! I may also want to give it a try even though I got a quite good official offer from Aktia today: 0.68% margin if I also take henkivakuutus, lainaturva, 200e/month saving.

The marginal sounds good. However, the associated insurances are probably crap. I have not heard of any good products being bundled with mortgages. They are expensive and have bad coverage. To get an idea compare to products like:

https://www.henkivakuutuskuntoon.fi

The upside is that you should be able to agree to the extra insurances and then just terminate those contracts when the loan has been withdrawn.

[reindeer]

The marginal sounds good. However, the associated insurances are probably crap. I have not heard of any good products being bundled with mortgages. They are expensive and have bad coverage. To get an idea compare to products like:

https://www.henkivakuutuskuntoon.fi

The upside is that you should be able to agree to the extra insurances and then just terminate those contracts when the loan has been withdrawn.

My Aktia-offered 100K henkivakuutus costs about 130e/year, which is in my opinion quite reasonable. However, lainaturva is something I don't really understand. It's said on Aktia Website that it can cover cases such as unemployment, accident or even death while if I understand correctly, henkivakuutus already covers death. It's also rather expensive, about 30e/month.

[betelgeuse]

My Aktia-offered 100K henkivakuutus costs about 130e/year, which is in my opinion quite reasonable.

More than double to what I would pay with the union discount.

However, lainaturva is something I don't really understand. It's said on Aktia Website that it can cover cases such as unemployment, accident or even death while if I understand correctly, henkivakuutus already covers death. It's also rather expensive, about 30e/month.

In case of death it's possible to get payed from multiple policies. If your lainaturva has a death combined, then you want to sum up the amounts with your normal life insurance. I checked the calculator in Nordea online banking for their product and with the default coverage for me the result was way over 100e/month. So with 30e/month you are at least not totally being ripped off.

[reindeer]

Life insurance is something I can/want to take because it protects my family in the worst case, especially as we have kid, but I'm not sure about loan insurance. Anyone who has taken loan insurance please share if it's worth. I don't know what policies the bank have until they explain to me clearly in English before I sign the papers. It seems, however, that somebody has already raised the same question here http://kaksplus.fi/threads/kannattaako- ... a.1629452/ and here http://yle.fi/uutiset/lainaturvasta_use ... ys/5266988 and it sounds like it can be difficult to claim in some cases.

[nano333]

Hi reindeer,
Thanks for posting valuable information on home loan. I have been following with few banks for funding my home. I got positive reply from Nordea but their margin was high, But they were ready to fund whatever I asked with no external guarantee needed. BTW, your offer from dankse and other banks needs external guarantee or how?. Because I think external guarantee costs around 4000 euros as per my understanding.

[reindeer]

Hi reindeer,
Thanks for posting valuable information on home loan. I have been following with few banks for funding my home. I got positive reply from Nordea but their margin was high, But they were ready to fund whatever I asked with no external guarantee needed. BTW, your offer from dankse and other banks needs external guarantee or how?. Because I think external guarantee costs around 4000 euros as per my understanding.

No they didn't require any external guarantee. They offered something called state guarantee which basically allows you to borrow a bit more than the maximum 70% (with Nordea) and 75% (with Danske) of the house price. For example, if the house price is 300K, Nordea lend you maximum 70% which is 210K and require you to have 30% or 90K as downpayment. If you can't afford that 30% and wanna borrow more, you can pay some fee (about 1K) once and you can get a bigger amount than that 210K.