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Assistance with housing costs

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Changes in housing benefits for students as of 1 August 2025

The majority of students can get the new student housing supplement from the beginning of the autumn term 2025. This means that general housing allowance will no longer be paid to students after 31 July 2025. You can apply for the student housing supplement in the OmaKela e-service in June 2025 at the earliest. The supplement will be paid from 1 August 2025 onwards. The change will not apply to students who live with their child or their partner’s child. Read more.

You can be paid student housing supplement if you live in rented or right-of-occupancy housing and you qualify for student financial aid. The student financial aid consists of study grant, student loan and housing supplement. Kela pays housing supplement to students who live in rented or right-of-occupancy housing for the months of active study.

Can you get housing supplement?

You can be paid student housing supplement if you live in rented or right-of-occupancy housing and you qualify for student financial aid. The housing supplement is paid for months of active study. You can get housing supplement for both studies pursued in Finland and abroad.

You cannot get housing supplement if

Find out if you can get general housing allowance

If the housing supplement for students is not available to you, you should find out if you can get general housing allowance. You can get general housing allowance in, for example, the following situations:

How much is the housing supplement for students?

The amount of student housing supplement you can get depends on which municipality you live in and how high your housing costs are. The amount of housing supplement is affected by, for instance, if you live in a home rented from or owned by your parent(s), abroad or in a school dormitory. The housing supplement is not affected by the income of your partner or your parents.

Below you find examples of the maximum amount of housing supplement available. The amount of housing supplement can also be lower than the amount stated in the examples.

Maximum amount of housing supplement according to municipality
EUR 296, 248 or 216 per month
Maximum amount of housing supplement if you live in a home owned by your parent(s)
EUR 83 per month

Amount of housing supplement and acceptable housing costs in different municipalities

The amount of housing supplement is equal to 80% of your acceptable housing costs. If your housing costs exceed the maximum amount of acceptable housing costs, you will have to pay the exceeding amount yourself. If your housing costs are less than the maximum amount of acceptable housing costs, you can get 80% of your housing costs in housing supplement.

A maximum of EUR 370 per month is accepted as housing costs. 80% of this amount is paid in housing supplement. You can thus get a housing supplement of up to EUR 296 per month.

A maximum of EUR 310 per month is accepted as housing costs. 80% of this amount is paid in housing supplement. You can thus get a housing supplement of up to EUR 248 per month.

A maximum of EUR 270 per month is accepted as housing costs. 80% of this amount is paid in housing supplement. You can thus get a housing supplement of up to EUR 216 per month.

 

What constitutes acceptable housing costs?

Acceptable housing costs are

  • rent or maintenance fee for right-of-occupancy housing
  • fixed charges for water, electricity or furniture.

Charges that are determined on the basis of use (for instance advance payment of water charge) or heating costs are not considered acceptable housing costs in connection with the housing supplement. Neither are charges for sauna, internet, parking or other separate charges considered acceptable housing costs in connection with the housing supplement.

When the housing costs exceed the maximum amount of acceptable housing costs

Aada pays EUR 650 per month in rent for her home in Helsinki. On the basis of her municipality of residence, EUR 370 per month are accepted as housing costs.

Aada gets EUR 296 per month in housing supplement. She must thus pay the exceeding part of the rent herself, that is, EUR 354 per month (EUR 650 - EUR 296 = EUR 354).

Amount of housing supplement when all the residents are students

Veeti lives in Helsinki with two roommates. The total rent for the home is EUR 900 per month, and so each person’s share of the rent is EUR 300 per month. The amount of housing supplement is 80% of the rent, which means that each person gets EUR 240 per month in housing supplement.

Amount of housing supplement when not all the residents are students

Lumi and Pyry live in Tampere. Lumi is a student, and Pyry is currently unemployed. The rent for the home is EUR 580 per month.

Lumi applies for housing supplement, and half of the rent, i.e. EUR 290 per month, is taken into account as her housing costs. 80% of this amount is paid in housing supplement, i.e. EUR 232 per month. Pyry applies for general housing allowance for his part of the rent.

When is the housing supplement paid out?

The student housing supplement and the study grant will be paid into your account at the same time. We will pay the housing supplement to your bank account on the first day of the month or on the next working day. For example, if the first day of the month is a Saturday, the housing supplement is paid to your bank account on the next Monday.

We will pay the housing supplement directly to you, not for instance to your landlord.

We send information about the housing supplements paid out to the Incomes Register within five days of the date of payment.

How to apply for the housing supplement

You can apply for the student housing supplement in the OmaKela e-service in June 2025 at the earliest. The supplement will be paid from 1 August 2025 onwards.

  1. You can apply for the student housing supplement after you have accepted your offer of admission and you know where you will be living during your studies. The educational institutions that participate in the joint admissions system automatically notify us of students who have accepted an offer of admission.
  2. If you do not currently get student financial aid, first apply for financial aid in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish).
  3. Apply for housing supplement with an application for housing supplement in the OmaKela e-service when you have applied for student financial aid or if you already get financial aid. You find the application under Tee hakemus - Opiskelu (Submit an application - Studying) in OmaKela. You can apply for housing supplement immediately after you have applied for financial aid. You do not have to wait for a decision on your application for financial aid.
  4. Scan or take a photo of any supporting documents and send them in OmaKela.
  5. Visit OmaKela to see if your application has been decided, how much you will get and when your benefit will be paid. You can also see reminders concerning, for instance, any documents missing from your application. The decision notice will also be sent to your home address unless you have opted out of paper mail. If you are under 18, we will send the decision also to your legal guardian.

If you cannot use OmaKela, send your application to Kela by post. Save the application for financial aid or the notification of changes to your device and fill it in after saving it. Print out the completed form and send the form and any related documents to the address Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.

Application and notification forms:

If you are under 18 years of age, you can apply for housing supplement yourself in OmaKela or by filling out a form. You can also complete and sign the form together with your legal guardian. However, your guardian cannot file an application on your behalf in OmaKela. 

Even if you are not 18 years old, you may be able to get your own online banking credentials or a mobile ID, which will allow you to sign in to OmaKela. You should agree this with your guardian and with your bank or telecommunications service provider.

If you are an EU citizen and you do not have Finnish online banking credentials, you can use eIDAS identification when contacting Kela. Read more about how EU citizens can log in to and handle matters in Kela’s e-service.

Things to remember when you apply for the housing supplement

Apply for the student housing supplement after you have accepted your offer of admission and you know where you will be living during your studies. It will be easier to complete the application and you will receive a decision sooner. The educational institutions that participate in the joint admissions system automatically notify us of students who have accepted an offer of admission.

Apply for housing supplement for the entire course of study at the same time. That way the benefit will continue to be paid automatically for example after the summer break.

The earliest that you can get housing supplement is the beginning of the month in which we received your application. We must get your application by the last day of the month at the latest. Applications submitted via the OmaKela e-service arrive at Kela on the same day they are submitted. If you fill in a paper form and mail it to Kela by post, please note that it often takes a few days for Kela to get it.

Enclose a copy of the rental or right-of-occupancy agreement with the application when you apply for housing supplement. If you have already submitted a copy of the rental agreement to us, you do not need to send it again. You do not need to submit the rental agreement, if we get the information on the rental agreement directly from the landlord.

Scan or take a photo of any supporting documents and send them in OmaKela. For instance clearly legible documents photographed with a phone are accepted.

Your income will affect the number of months per year for which you can get the housing supplement. The income limits for the housing supplement are the same as for other types of student financial aid. However, the housing supplement is not counted as income.

You must make sure that your income does not exceed your annual income limit. If your income exceeds your annual income limit, you must pay back both your study grant and the student housing supplement to Kela. Read more about the income check. 

You do not have to pay tax on the housing supplement.

Special circumstances that affect your housing supplement

If you live in a rented home with your partner, your share is always half of the total housing costs. If you and your partner have signed separate rental agreements, your individual housing costs are added together and divided equally between you and your partner.

If you live with roommates and you have separate rental agreements, your housing costs are determined separately on the basis of each rental agreement. 

If you have signed a joint rental agreement, your housing costs are usually divided equally among all roommates. If you have a joint rental agreement, but you occupy a different number of rooms, or your rooms are of widely different sizes, the housing costs can be divided in another way. 

If you live with roommates as a subtenant, your housing supplement is determined on the basis of your subtenant contract. If you have a subtenant, the money paid to you by the subtenant is deducted from your housing costs.

Each roommate who is a student must apply for the student housing supplement separately.

If you get housing supplement during the academic year and your studies continue after the period of holiday, you cannot get general housing allowance for the period of holiday.

You can get student financial aid during the period of holiday, that is, also housing supplement, if you study actively. Since financial aid for the summer months uses up your available months of financial aid and affects your annual income limits, you should apply for study grant, student loan and housing supplement as financial aid for the summer months. It is thus not worthwhile to only apply for housing supplement as financial aid for the summer months. 

Learn more about summer financial aid.

Housing supplement during summer holiday

Venla studies at a university of applied sciences and gets student financial aid from September to May. She does not study during the summer, so her studies will continue in September. Since her studies continue after the summer holiday, she will not get housing supplement in June, July and August, and she is also not eligible for general housing allowance.

The following summer Venla completes courses and exams that are part of her degree, and she applies for financial aid for the summer months (June, July and August). She gets financial aid for the period that she has applied for, and thus she also gets housing supplement for the summer months. 

The months of financial aid (June, July and August) use up a total of three months of the months of financial aid available to Venla. In the year in question, Venla’s income limit is calculated on the basis of 12 months of financial aid.

If you have to cancel or pay back student financial aid for instance in order to raise your annual income limit, you must also cancel or pay back the housing supplement. You cannot be granted general housing allowance for the months for which you cancel your student financial aid.

If you are not entitled to student financial aid, you also cannot be granted housing supplement. The following are some of the situations in which you cannot get student financial aid:

However, in these situations you can apply for general housing allowance.

If you live in a home owned by or rented from your parent(s), the maximum student housing supplement you can get is EUR 83 per month. 

You can only get housing supplement for a home owned by your parent(s), if you have a rental agreement for the home. The rental agreement can be concluded directly with your parent(s) or through someone else. If you do not have a rental agreement, you cannot get housing supplement.

Your home is considered to be owned by your parent(s) if your parent(s) own(s) at least half of it either directly or through a company. The home is also considered to be owned by your parent(s), if the home is owned by an estate and your parent owns at least half of the estate.

In connection with the housing supplement, biological parents and adoptive parents are counted as parents. For instance grandparents or your parent’s partner are not counted as parents.

If you are under 17 years of age, you can be paid a housing supplement even if you cannot yet get a study grant. Your parents’ income does not affect the amount of the housing supplement.

If you or your partner has a child who lives in your home, you cannot usually be paid a housing supplement. In such a case, you should apply for general housing allowance.

However, you can get housing supplement, if you meet all the following criteria:

  • You live with your own or your partner’s child in a home which you have rented in order to attend school.
  • The home you have rented is in another town than your family's primary residence.
  • During your studies, the primary residence of your family is occupied by some other family member, such as your partner.

If your whole family lives in one and the same home you cannot be paid a housing supplement. In that case you can apply for general housing allowance as a family.

You can, however, be paid a housing supplement if you study abroad and you live in the same home with a child of your own or a child of your partner.

If your partner is paid housing allowance for pensioners, you cannot usually be granted student housing supplement. However, you can get housing supplement, if you meet all the following criteria:

  • You live in a home that you have rented because of your studies.
  • The home you have rented is in another town than your family's primary residence.
  • Your partner lives in your family’s primary residence while you study.

If you study and live abroad due to your studies, you can usually get housing supplement to the amount of EUR 210 per month. You cannot get housing supplement for the same time for your home in Finland. 

If you live abroad but attend a school in Finland, the maximum student housing supplement you can get is EUR 216 per month.

If you live in Finland but attend a school abroad, you can get student housing supplement according to the amounts determined for your municipality of residence.

If you are enrolled in a fee-based study programme organised by a Finnish folk high school, sports institute or the Sámi Education Institute and live in a school dormitory, you can get a housing supplement of EUR 88.87 per month. If you live in a school dormitory, you cannot get housing supplement for other housing. 

If you are not yet paid student financial aid, you can apply for the housing supplement for students and other types of student financial aid with an application for student financial aid. You do not have to apply for the housing supplement with a separate application for housing supplement.

If you live or you have the option of living in a school dormitory free of charge, you cannot usually be paid a housing supplement for a rented home. 

However, you can be paid a housing supplement if you cannot live in the dormitory on weekends, during school holidays or during periods of on-the-job training. You have the option of living in the dormitory during active days of study even if you are paid a housing supplement for your rented home. Any dormitory charges are not accepted as housing costs.

If you study at the National Defence University, the Border and Coast Guard Academy or Lieksa Christian Institute, you can get housing supplement only in exceptional cases. In such cases, please contact us by calling our customer service number. 

If you live and study in the Åland Islands, you can get housing supplement on the same conditions as students who study elsewhere in Finland as from 1 August 2025. If you already get housing supplement, we will automatically adjust the amount and send you a new decision. If you do not currently get student financial aid, first apply for financial aid and after that for housing supplement.

You can get housing supplement if you due to your studies have to live temporarily for instance in a hotel, a holiday home or shared accommodation. You can get housing supplement for temporary accommodation for a maximum of one semester.

If you move and you cannot get housing supplement for your new home and you still have housing costs for the previous home, you can get housing supplement for the previous home. The move may be temporary or permanent. 

You can get housing supplement for your previous home for a maximum of three months, but only if you have already earlier been granted housing supplement for the period in question. However, you cannot get housing supplement for your previous home for instance as part of the student financial aid for the summer months.

Housing supplement for previous home

Onni lives independently and gets housing supplement for his home. He starts on-the-job training in the town where his parents live. The on-the-job training lasts from January to March and Onni lives with his parents during this time. He cannot get housing supplement for his parents’ home. 

When Onni states on the notification of changes concerning student financial aid that he still pays the rent himself for his own home, he can get housing supplement for his own home for a maximum of three months. If the on-the-job training had been in the summer months, he could not have been paid housing supplement for his own home. 

You can also get housing supplement for your previous home, if you move to an owner-occupied home but the rental agreement for your previous home does not end until after your move. Notify us of the move on a notification of changes concerning student financial aid.

Report changes that affect your housing supplement

Please remember to inform us about any changes, so that you are paid the correct amount of benefit. 

Report changes.

If you move, remember to notify the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (www.dvv.fi) of your new address.

Last modified 28/4/2025
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