Although more electricity is consumed during the autumn and winter months, there are several ways to keep costs down so that bills don’t soar above summer levels.

The price of electricity has been falling since May and is currently wavering sideways. The price has been pulled down by good water conditions, the decrease in fuel prices and the negative economic outlook.

Constructing your first home – and making it a success – requires a lot of planning, preparation and research before getting the project off the ground.

Having your dream home built to your own specifications is something many of us would love to do, but where do you start, how easy is it and what are the pitfalls?

“A good starting point is to decide on a budget,” Harri Mäkelä, the marketing manager at Kuusamo Log Houses, explains. “Decide how much you can afford and then look around to see what you can get for your money. It saves time and stress in the long run if you work out a budget first.”

A COMMON complaint among immigrants and expatriates living in Finland is that it’s hard to get to know their neighbours. The usual plea is that people pass each other in the corridors or the stairs without a word – indeed, with barely a glance of recognition.

While this may be true in many cases, it does not have to be that way. Most Finns are very warm people once you get past their initial reserve. It’s just hard to break the ice – but there is a solution. There’s one social institution that breaks down the barriers and sets you off on the right foot with your neighbours: the talkoot.

A LOT OF ink has been spilled about the issues faced by foreigners in negotiating the property market in Finland, especially renting a flat. Housing is one area that often comes up in discussions of how difficult it is to integrate with Finnish society. This begs the question, though: is it really true that foreigners have particular problems in dealing with housing?

VVO is Finland’s largest housing services company. Its activities range from development and construction of property to the rent and sale of apartments – some 40,000 apartments in 45 municipalities.

Young applicants are badly treated under the present system, according to critics.

THE RIGHT-of-occupancy apartments systems is in urgent need of a comprehensive overhaul to make it less rigid and unjust, critical industry insiders say. The sector’s umbrella organisation Asumisoikeusyhteisöt ry would above all like to see the present, two-decade-old queuing system done away with as being highly unfair to younger applicants.

Is Finland really a nation of strangers living next door to one another?

There are certain places it is considered bad manners to look each other in the eye or make small talk: public urinals, whilst riding the London underground, in the corridors and hallways of any Finnish apartment block. But that last one can’t really be true, can it? I know that the general view of the Finn is someone who is introvert and reserved, but surely that’s just a stereotype and not actually reflective of day to day life in Finland?

GARANCE BASCLE just moved to Finland from France. Her housing requirements were simple: two bedrooms, sauna and close to Espoo.

“It took about two weeks to find it,” she says. “We were really surprised about the high rent asked by some places that were in quite a bad condition and not well-situated at all. We wondered if we should start looking for something else but we finally found a flat that corresponded exactly to what we were looking for.”

Finding the perfect place takes time and patience.

RENT is going up. In Helsinki, rental prices have been increasing at twice the pace of inflation for the past six years. If someone is looking for a new flat to rent at a reasonable price, it is advantageous to do one’s homework.

Finding the perfect place can take time and patience. Some agents can be contracted to help renters find a flat, and the Finnish state helps in some situations. Searching online is one of the most popular methods, and there are various websites where one can stipulate desired amenities, locations and prices.

Helsinki Design Week’s new theme “To Declare” runs until 18 September in the Old Customs Warehouse (Tulli ja Pakkahuone) in Katajanokka. Kari Korkman, Design Week’s founder, has an editorial view on picking objects that directly relate to the theme of the main exhibition. “This exhibition is not just about showing design objects, but saying something with them,” he says. “The objects are like Rubik’s cubes, with many connections. Each person has their own vantage point with which to view the object.”

The biggest cities will also start instructing their employees in saving energy.

Soon, builders of one-family houses in the biggest cities in Finland will receive ecological advice on construction, and the cities’ employees will get tips on how to save energy. The Mayors’ Climate Network, composed of the mayors of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Turku and Oulu, has published six common climate initiatives. For example, each city will select a residential area or a city block which the city and its inhabitants, organisations and companies will strive to make carbon neutral. At the same time, the cities will look into how to stop burdening the climate by 2050. One of the planned actions is to open climate information offices on the city blocks.