On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:31:47 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> OIC, I'm not sure either.  Could you basically walk away from it if you
>> wanted to?
> 
> Yes. With a term of notice of one month.
> 
> It's a mode of ownership where you kind of "half-buy" the apartment.
> This means you pay something like 15% (IIRC) of its full price, and when
> you move out, you get that money back (inflation-adjusted).
> 
> It's different from a rental in that with a rental you don't pay
> anything but the rent, and you have less rights to the apartment.

That's really interesting.  I've never heard of anything like that here 
in the US (not that that means it doesn't exist over here).

>> What's the word in Finnish that describes it?
> 
> I think the Finnish term that most accurately corresponds to this is
> "asunto-osake", which literally means "apartment share" (as in a stock
> market share). I think that you literally buy a share (in the exact same
> way as you would buy shares of any compnay) and you own the apartment as
> property. The apartment is usually located in a building and you have to
> pay a (relatively small) monthly fee for the maintenance (which would be
> exactly a "condo fee", AFAIK).
> 
> This form of living is a bit like that, except you don't actually own
> the apartment as property, although you have much more rights to it than
> with a rented apartment.

It sounds very similar to a co-op, but with a different financial 
arrangement between the owner and the residents.  There's a word on the 
tip of my brain that I think describes it, but I can't quite get it off 
the tip of my brain....

Jim

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