rent appartement with furniture or without

ammowafy · Post by **ammowafy** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:06 pm

Hi ,

i will moving to finland to work , i need advice about shall i rent appartment with furniture or without. i will need to rent 1 room or small studio around 30 M.

can anyone advice me and tell the amount i will pay for buying my own furniture.

Thank you All

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interleukin · Post by **interleukin** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:29 pm

Most apartments in Finland will be rented without furniture, so you will probably pay a lot extra to have it furnished (the landlord knows that they can take advantage of you because you would not rent the apartment with furniture if you didn't really have to).
I think most people would just take the unfurnished apartment, and put up ads in this forum or ask around at work to get the basic furniture. Also, I think a trip to IKEA is quite common (IKEA can be found in Espoo and Vantaa) to get the basic things. It does not have to cost that much if you just get what you need and don't mind that it is basic stuff. At least you get to decide what stuff to have. Then, when you move from Finland again, you can post the things you have bought for sale in this forum or others and make a new arrival very happy.
So in summary: The furnished option is very convenient, but you will be paying for it. If you have the time to get stuff (secondhand or new), it will probably turn out much cheaper in the end.
For me, coming from a culture where no apartments are rented out furnished, the idea of living in a place where someone else has decided what stuff to have is quite alien.

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:08 pm

ammowafy wrote: can anyone advice me and tell the amount i will pay for buying my own furniture.
Thank you All

I can sell you my used furniture for a Cool Million Euros if that is affordable to you!!

Depends on many things...but Furniture is comparably more expensive than wherever you come from-..
so dont start to move here before you save money...Or ask your company to help you out with this..

Vesper · Post by **Vesper** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:49 am

how much does a bed/mattress cost in Finland? does IKEA deliver any furniture?

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:56 am

Vesper wrote:how much does a bed/mattress cost in Finland? does IKEA deliver any furniture?

first, I can tell you the exact price of THE bed in Finland, if you can answer which of the following you belong to ( mebbe more than one also )
1) Stupid
2) idiot
3) All of the above..
and from the crystal orb that I saw...IKEA seems to deliver furniture..but for a fee!! and that depends on how far you stay..
and no, you cannot order furniture from Denmark to be delivered to Finland !!

biscayne · Post by **biscayne** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:04 am

To the OP. I sympathize, because it's not as easy as it seems. As the others have said most apartments are rented out unfurnished, and even if they can be rented furnished you might find a great one which you really like where the landlord will not provide furnished even if you can pay extra for it. Ikea is a good option, you can get some incredibly cheap basics there to start with. The problem is that the Ikeas in Finland like everywhere else are located on the sides of motorways and I'm really not sure if any public transport goes there, so if you don't have a car it could be difficult to get there, especially if you don't know anyone yet who can help you. Secondly, all Ikea stuff is flat-pack which means you have to assemble it yourself and believe me some of the stuff is really tricky to assemble especially if you are not the DIY type. Once you get into the area of getting Ikea stuff delivered and assembled for you by them, it is no longer a cheap option. My suggestion would be that if you find a great apartment unfurnished, bring a sleeping bag for the first 2 or 3 days, or go to a hotel if you can afford it and ask the people you will be working or studying with if they have any old stuff you can use, or can somebody volunteer to bring you to Ikea and help you assemble the stuff. If all else fails, you are going to have to buy the bare basics from a "normal" shop which delivers, or take taxi to Ikea. Good luck.

interleukin · Post by **interleukin** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:18 am

, so if you don't have a car it could be difficult to get there,

so why not take the free IKEA bus that goes from Hakaniemi to Vantaa or Kiasma to Espoo? It goes back and forth several times a day. My recommendation is to go there first once just to look, and not buy anything. Write down the names of stuff that is cheap but you could live with. Go back a bit later and get it done. If you buy everything at once, the fee for getting stuff transported becomes a better deal.

biscayne · Post by **biscayne** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:22 pm

Free Ikea bus sounds great and the delivery fee being worth it for a larger number of items is spot on, however the OP will still have to assemble everything. I kitted out an apartment with Ikea, and without (men) help - no way could I have done it. Some tools are also required such as a power screwdriver unless you want to screw (no pun intended) literally all day. Also the cheaper items tend to be the chipwood stuff which is amazingly heavy (their Malm range for example nearly sent one of my helpers to the hospital it was so heavy)

Paul_D · Post by **Paul_D** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:17 pm

ammowafy wrote:can anyone advice me and tell the amount i will pay for buying my own furniture.

You can get an idea of the "bottom-prices" of new furnitures with these links:
- Ikea
- Kodin Ykkönen

I can even try to do a calculation based on a quick look to the Ikea catalogs on-line (yet, not choosing the cheapest items they have). Let's say:
- bed+mattress: 300-500 euros
- one tall shelf: 50-70 euros
- one table + 2 chairs: 70-100 euros
- sheets, towels, plates, forks, knives, glasses, light bubbles, lamps, and the like in the "small" furnitures department: let's say 100 euros for the lot.
- fridge : most probably not needed, because unfurnished flats do usually have a fridge
- oven/cooking stoves: most probably not needed, because unfurnished flats do usually have an oven and cooking stoves
- washing-machine: most probably not needed, because unfurnished flats do usually have a washing-machine. If not, there may be one in the basement of the building.

So, 520-770 euros would be a rough estimation. You can cut a few hundreds if you go for a plain mattress without bed, for no-shelf, if you bring the "small" furniture with you, etc. But hey, you have a job and a salary, don't you?

Ikea usually packs their products in "flat-boxes", so, except for the big ones (bed, mattress...), it's no big problem to carry them by bus (or by tram, and even less problem by commuter-train or metro). I know, I have done it a lot, because I have no car and I live in the city-center. By using the journey planner, you can plan your trips to IKEA stores, from wherever in the Helsinki area.

There are 2 IKEA stores in Helsinki-area (one in Espoo, one in Vantaa), both are close of some bus-stops, both provide free buses to city-center (ilmainen ikean bussi). Also, for larger/heavier items, there can be home delivery, relatively cheap (something like 50 euros for less than 200 kg, if i recall well), and that's especially interesting if you buy at the same time all the "big" furnitures (bed, shelves, table, mattress...)

You can find cheaper on the second hand market. For example, on this forum, or on huuto.net, or in the 2nd hand shops.

You can find more expensive easily, especially if you want (finnish) design, something exotic, etc. But I assume you would not ask here if you were ready to pay 2000 euros for a bed, or 1000 euros for an expresso-machine.

I guess your underlying question was: if I stay in Finland during x months, what's better between:
- option 1: a monthly rent R1 for a furnished flat
- option 2: buying furnitures for a cost of F, and paying the monthly rent R2 for an unfurnished flat.

So, what is x for R1*x = F + R2*x...? Furnished flats may have better furnitures than the price indicated by F (for instance, I did not count a TV in F), so this equation is not very accurate. Yet, it gives and idea, and you can quickly find out that if x is at least ~6 months, it is better to rent unfurnished. For example, x = 5 months for R1 = 750 euros, R2=600 euros and F = 750 euros.

However, now that everything has been said, let's face a fact: there are very few offers of furnished flats in the Helsinki area, so the whole discussion is pretty useless...

/Paul

Vesper · Post by **Vesper** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:08 pm

raamv wrote:
Vesper wrote:how much does a bed/mattress cost in Finland? does IKEA deliver any furniture?
first, I can tell you the exact price of THE bed in Finland, if you can answer which of the following you belong to ( mebbe more than one also )
1) Stupid
2) idiot
3) All of the above..
and from the crystal orb that I saw...IKEA seems to deliver furniture..but for a fee!! and that depends on how far you stay..
and no, you cannot order furniture from Denmark to be delivered to Finland !!

whatever... bitter man.

why the hell would I order furtinure from Denmark anyhow?
I would like to know an estimate price of a mattress in Finland, BECAUSE I want to make sure I bring enough money with me to purchase one. My currency isn't Euros, so I have to convertion the estimate amount into my currency. Which the price will end up being a higher amount of money then you paid for your mattress.

by the way, the spelling is 'MAYBE' not 'mebbe'. idiot!

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:12 pm

Vesper wrote:
raamv wrote:
Vesper wrote:how much does a bed/mattress cost in Finland? does IKEA deliver any furniture?
first, I can tell you the exact price of THE bed in Finland, if you can answer which of the following you belong to ( mebbe more than one also )
1) Stupid
2) idiot
3) All of the above..
and from the crystal orb that I saw...IKEA seems to deliver furniture..but for a fee!! and that depends on how far you stay..
and no, you cannot order furniture from Denmark to be delivered to Finland !!

whatever... bitter man.

why the hell would I order furtinure from Denmark anyhow?
I would like to know an estimate price of a mattress in Finland, BECAUSE I want to make sure I bring enough money with me to purchase one. My currency isn't Euros, so I have to convertion the estimate amount into my currency. Which the price will end up being a higher amount of money then you paid for your mattress.

by the way, the spelling is 'MAYBE' not 'mebbe'. idiot!

So you are beginning to "think"...
With such a broad question like yours...Its takes a Paul_D to answer you!! ( especially given the amount of detail that he has given ) and all of that same question again and again, like a thousand times..
and in internet slang lingo mebbe is a maybe...and since you understood it and corrected it..It does count as slang!!

If you had mentioned what you mentioned in this reply, perhaps, it would have been easier to answer your question..( so try to be more specific in the future )
and besides IKEA; there's cheap furniture stores like sotka (www.sotka.fi), www.jysk.fi
which do have specials from time to time..
so define furniture..again!!

tizlit · Post by **tizlit** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:09 am

Finally . . . Paul_D answered and with solid advice. this helped me as well in my situation.
There seems to be a lot of blah,blah on this site.
SO, thank you Paul_D !

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri May 01, 2009 7:58 pm

If you want to go real cheap, you can get a frame mattrass that you bolt the legs on for about a 100 from Sotka. Not maybe the best, but cheap. For pots and pans and such at least IKEA offered at one point a "starter kit" that had all the necessaries.

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