Last few months you have been able to see headlines how the housing market is in favour of the buyer because housing prices have lowered. Finish newssites HS, MTV and YLE. I saw an apartment on sale downstairs of my current rental building so I decided to do the math. I calculated what would be the monthly cost if I bought the apartment that is now listed for 300k EUR debt-free. The current 5 % interest rate with 30 years payback time for the 300k EUR mortgage would mean 1 576 EUR monthly down payment. Together with the fixed housing costs monthly costs would be 2250 EUR if I bought the apartment. Now I'm living in a rental apartment which is exactly the same size 55 squere meters and upstairs in the same building. My rent is 1 200 EUR so thanks to living in a rental apartment my monthly costs are 1 050 EUR below house owners monthly costs. My conclusion is that for me it doesn't make sense to buy an apartment with the current price level. Naturally numbers are not the only factors whether you decide to live in a rental apartment or not but in my case that would be basically the only difference.
Also Finnish FIRE blog Omavaraisuushaaste published a nice post about the topic, where some addtional examples from various cities in Finland are shared.
