Sustainability

The responsibility theme covers themes related to financial viability, good governance and partnership. This is monitored in the strategy with housing occupancy rates. Rental income from apartments normally accounts for approximately 97% of the foundation’s income, and changes in the occupancy rate quickly affect the operating conditions and opportunities to implement other strategy objectives and aspects of the responsibility program.

In 2024, the economic occupancy rate of apartments was 98% (97.8% in 2023).

Economically efficient and profitable operation culminates in the break-even cost rents, the efficiency of the renting process and the active maintenance of the property and loan portfolio. Within its organizational form and area of operation, TYS already bears significant responsibility for the surrounding society by providing affordable housing for students.

A strategy objective is to keep rents 15% to 20% below market rents.

The realization of this objective is actively monitored.  The rental comparison is carried out by an external operator, the last of which was done in 2023. According to this, the Foundation’s rents are below market rents in accordance with the target.

Transparency of TYS’s administration refers to responsible use of TYS’s assets and operations in accordance with good governance. New construction and renovation are financed by ARA’s subsidized loans and investment grants, i.e. public funds. A significant part of the tenants receives housing allowance from Kela.

The foundation operates in Finland, thus paying all its taxes to Finland. In 2024, the foundation paid taxes and parafiscal levies totalling approximately 5.9 million € and received grants totalling approximately 0.05 million €. Therefore, the tax footprint for 2024 was approximately 5.85 million € in total (approximately 5.1 million € in 2023).

TYS adheres to the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out (1233/2006) and the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016) in its operations.

External services are procured for the maintenance and upkeep of properties and outdoor areas, cleaning, repairs, and new construction and renovations. In addition, many different expert services are procured, such as IT services.

In 2024, the Foundation acquired products and services from hundreds of different suppliers. Procurement exceeding the procurement limit is tendered in accordance with the Public Procurement Act. With regard to smaller product and service procurements below the procurement limits of the Act on Public Contracts, the aim is to invite tenders from more than one supplier.

During 2024, hundreds of people worked in the foundation’s properties and related tasks, for instance in maintenance, upkeep, and cleaning, and at construction sites working for service providers, suppliers, and expert service providers.

The responsibility theme encompasses the organization and personnel: the development of personnel competence, well-being and equality. A prosperous work community contributes to enabling operational efficiency, good customer service experience, and realizing service promises and other responsibility themes. The strategy monitors this with an overall personnel rating of the workplace. The objective is that a commendable or good (4-5, scale 1-5) rating would be given by more than 85% of the personnel.

In the most recent personnel survey, conducted in early 2025, in which staff assessed the foundation’s operations in 2024, 89.5% of respondents gave an excellent or good rating (88% in 2023), with an average rating of 4.4 (4.4 in 2023).

Different backgrounds, competence and abilities are taken into account in the operations. The development of the personnel expertise means investments in training and developing expertise as part of day-to-day work.

There were a total of 95 days of training organised by an external party in 2024, which means an average of 4.3 days/person (97 days in 2023, 4.4 days/person). The target of three training days/person was exceeded in 2024. In addition, data protection training was organised for all staff during the year.

The well-being of the personnel is monitored in the personnel survey on the basis of several indicators.

Personnel can influence the foundation’s operations, for example, in team and all-staff meetings and through, among other things, the initiative channel and the operation of the co-determination committee. Staff have access to an initiative form that they can use to submit development proposals and initiatives related to the foundation’s operations.

Fostering equality and non-discrimination is an important part of TYS’s responsibility. There is zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour, workplace bullying and all forms of discrimination.

A working group that consists of TYS staff has drawn up rules of procedure for the foundation´s office to ensure a pleasant and functional working environment.

The responsibility theme encompasses customer-related perspectives: customer service and service promises, communication, comfort and quality of housing, and community spirit. The strategy monitors this through service promises. The foundation’s service promises were announced in 2018. The goal is, for example, that at least 97% of tenants messages are answered during the next working day.

In 2024, the tenants gave high grades to areas such as TYS’s customer service (4.18), the quality of apartments (3.99) and communications (4.03). The target for all these grades is over 4.0 (on a scale of 1-5).

The objective is to reach potential tenants, know the needs of the customers, respond to demand with suitable apartments and be the number one choice of the students. Customer satisfaction has been monitored through both an annual extensive customer satisfaction survey and a monthly moving out survey.

Customers are served equally regardless of gender, age, nationality or other background. Tenant selection is based on ARA’s tenant selection guidelines.

TYS monitors the satisfaction of its tenants at a monthly basis through customer satisfaction surveys sent to different housing locations, as well as with moving-in and moving-out surveys. The customer satisfaction survey reached the tenants of all housing locations over the year.

Comfortable and high-quality apartments requires supervision of maintenance quality, investments in repairs and taking tenants’ suggestions into account in repairs. The resolution time of housing problem situations, i.e. the resolution time of fault reports, is monitored.

In addition to renovations, the apartments are repaired and refurbished as needed, for example when tenants change. Proposals for renovations are collected annually from the tenant committees when preparing the budget.

The repairs and renovations carried out in housing locations in 2024 amounted to €1.49/m2/month (€0.98/m2/month).

In 2024, a facelift renovation was carried out in the Kiertotähti location, in which the bathrooms, kitchens, and entrance doors in all apartments were renewed.

This is one reason why renovation costs were higher in 2024. In 2025, €1.13/m2/month has been budgeted for apartment repairs and for damage and internal repairs.

TYS communicates with its customers in a proactive and timely manner. Successful communication requires commitment to customer communications from all staff, along with a shared understanding of the importance of timely communication.

Communication is done in multiple channels, multilingually, and considering accessibility requirements, so that information would reach customers in the best way possible.

Tenants’ opinions on the Foundation’s communications are inquired monthly in the tenant satisfaction survey, which is sent out to different housing locations, and once a year in the communications survey. In 2024, tenants gave TYS communications a general rating of 4.03 (4.03 in 2023).

Communality is an integral part of student housing. TYS supports communality, for example, by offering tenants different kinds of common use spaces along with tenant and stakeholder events.

The majority of the Foundation’s housing locations have an operational tenant committee. Tenant activities are executed in close collaboration with tenant committees and the Tenant Committees’ Advisory Board. In 2024, student committees organized, e.g., different kinds of events and took care of lending items belonging to the housing locations.

Tenants are sent an annual tenant activity survey, in which they have the opportunity to evaluate the tenant committee activities and give their own development suggestions. In the 2024 responses, increasing tenant activity and making people feel that the activities are important were particularly highlighted. Respondents gave the importance of tenant activities a rating Transparent profitable operations Well-being work community of 3.54 (3.32). Also, more and more respondents had personally participated in tenant committee activities compared to 2023.

Most of the foundation’s housing locations have an active tenant committee. TYS organises a tenant meeting at housing locations without an active tenant committee as needed. In 2024, TYS organised two meetings and they resulted in establishing one new committee.

This responsibility theme includes issues related to environmental aspects: emissions from energy and water consumption and energy consumption in housing, investments in waste management, sustainable development, and comfort and safety aspects of housing. The strategic measure of sustainable housing is the carbon footprint of housing, which is based on the energy consumption of the foundation’s properties and emission-compensated waste management. The foundation has stated in the strategy to be carbon neutral in 2029.

The carbon footprint of the foundation’s own operations in 2024 was about 35% smaller than in the foundation’s carbon neutrality target baseline year of 2020 (4,168 t CO2-eq) and about 8% smaller than in 2023 (2,951 t CO2-eq).

The smaller carbon footprint was mainly due to the decrease in energy consumption emissions (scope 2), which was affected by the decrease in the district heating emission factor compared to the year before. In addition, the solar panels installed in Nummenranta and Student Village block 5 in the RESPONSE project and the heat pump introduced in Tyyssija have increased the locations’ energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy. In 2024, the foundation had no new construction or basic renovation building projects, which reduced the foundation’s indirect emissions (scope 3).

Climate change mitigation is one of TYS’s key responsibility objectives. Much of the emissions from properties are due to energy consumption and waste. TYS aims to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the apartments and increase the use of renewable energy. Guiding tenants is important in the responsible actions of day-to-day living. Encouraging energy and water saving as well as waste sorting is part of TYS’s ongoing communication.

During 2024 for example, window renovation of the heated balcony corridors in Student Village West was carried out. With the new windows, thermal energy in the balcony corridors can be saved. The energy savings of one building is calculated as 12,700 kWh per year. The renovation was carried out in a total of 23 buildings, which means that it will save a total of 292 MWh per year. LED lighting was also istalled in the balcony corridors during the year.

Sustainable development solutions mean for example, investments in solar panels and taking sustainable development into account in renovation and new construction.

In 2024, the approximately 500 solar panels on the roof of Aitiopaikka, 454 in Nummenranta, 252 in Student Village block 5, and 448 in Tyyssija produced 383 MWh (321 MWh) of electricity, of which 359 MWh was directed to the foundation’s properties. It is not currently possible to store solar panel output, so the surplus 24 MWh was sold to the electricity grid.

An important part of living is the safety of the apartments and neighbourhoods. The locking systems will be modernized gradually in all housing locations. With regard to living environments, TYS contributes to safety by purchasing security guarding services.

In the rescue law that entered into force at the beginning of 2024, the responsibility for the functionality and maintenance of smoke detectors in residential apartments was transferred from the tenant to the building owner. As to smoke detectors, the legislative amendment includes a transition period that extends until the end of 2025. During 2024, preparations were made to add smoke detectors to all residential apartments. Installations will begin in the summer of 2025 and be carried out gradually by the end of the year.

In Student Village East, anti-slip coating was piloted on the stair steps of two buildings and the steps in two buildings were deep cleaned during the year. In addition, the outdoor lighting at some locations were renewed.

TYS invests in architecturally interesting new construction and pays adequate attention to cultural-historically significant and protected buildings.