Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> On 8/3/2012 5:31, Warp wrote:
> > 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).

> Kewl. So some organization or company owns the entire building, and you own 
> part of that organization, which gives you certain rights in the building. A 
> neat system. I think I've heard of that in the USA, but it's far from common.

I think that "housing cooperative" is the most accurate term for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_cooperative

However, the "in-between" form of my apartment might be unique to Finland
(or very few countries).

Basically it's: "Pay 15% (or such) of the apartment's full price, and you
can live there cheaper than the rent of the same apartment would be, plus
you get more rights to the apartment than with a rented apartment (eg. you
can perform modifications and renovations to a much larger extent, and it's
a bit more difficult for the building's owner to kick you out, for insance)."

The upside of this is also that you can move out at any moment (with a
month's notice) and you get that 15% you paid back (inflation-adjusted).

However, you don't actually *own* the apartment. You can't eg. sell it to
someone else, and there are limits to what you can do to it.

> There's something in the USA called a "time-share", where you own 1/52'nd of 
> one apartment, and you get to use it during that week, with the intent that 
> you use it for vacations. Another odd thing I don't think I've seen outside 
> of north america.

There are time-share schemes like that in Finland, especially for luxury
vacation cottages near to skiing centers and such (which would otherwise
be *way* too expensive for the average person to buy).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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