Financially, the year 2024 was better than expected. We were able to adapt our costs and, at the same time, our revenue developed better than anticipated. Improved productivity and, as a result, better cost correlation supported our positive financial development.
Increased use of our registered data
The demand for property information took an upward turn again after a few more subdued years. The use of property information increased by 7.4 per cent from 2023. In addition, the use of our registers for housing company share information and topographic information grew. The content of the Residential and Commercial Property Information System is expanding rapidly, and the use of it’s information increased by staggering 188 per cent from 2023. The use of topographic information register grew by 32 per cent. The increase in the use of our basic registers exceeded all our expectations.
What do the numbers tell us? At least that there is demand in the society for registered information produced and maintained by the NLS. The registers we maintain are unique and necessary for the operations of our users.
We are extremely happy to have been able to serve our customers and partners through our registers without interruptions. The availability of our registers was almost 100 per cent, which is not so easily said and done in times of such uncertainty. Our up-to-date, reliable and constantly available registers provide a wide range of customers with the information they need to operate, for example, for granting of loans or for real estate and property exchange.
Even greater importance of geospatial data and positioning
We also worked very hard in the fields of accurate positioning, maintenance of geospatial data and research.
Satellite positioning interference, or GNSS interference, is a phenomenon most affected by the change in the global political situation in our daily lives. Especially in eastern Finland, GNSS interference caused problems in the production of aerial photography and laser scanning data. Our laser scanning covered an area of about 60,000 square kilometres, which is a little more than in 2023.
Aerial photography and laser scanning materials produced by the NLS are critical to many functions of society. The materials are used by various public sector operators, such as Finnish Forest Centre, Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and cities. The effects of GNSS interference are also seen in many other functions of society, such as air traffic and navigation.
Increased GNSS interference has also been clearly reflected in our research operations. The Finnish Geospatial Research Institute of the NLS carried out research to identify the effects of GNSS interference and to minimise its adverse effects, for example. Our other research topics include sustainable agriculture, autonomous environment perception, the digital twin of waters, and usability of geospatial data.
In assessing the scientific impact of research, the research carried out at the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute came in first place. We were able to increase external financing in our research from the previous year. In 2024, we spent just under 11 million euros in total in research.
Global positioning requires unique infrastructure. Metsähovi geodetic research station in Kirkkonummi does just that. The exceptionally high-quality research infrastructure in the Metsähovi station has been systematically developed for years, and in going forward, it will provide observations also for the needs of production. As a base station, Metsähovi is part of a network of international research stations enabling accurate positioning using satellites. Positioning provides operating conditions for critical functions of society, such as traffic, navigation and aviation.
The development of Metsähovi research station continues. A new task of the NLS is to collect information about space junk, which poses a significant threat to satellites. The task is part of the new Space Situational Awareness Centre.
A modernising NLS
The year 2024 was the year of renewal at the NLS. At the start of the year, we confirmed our new strategy and vision and set out with determination to put them into practice. The strategy and vision were prepared together with several NLS people, and the changes are slowly starting to show in our daily work.
One of the catalysts for renewal was tightening finances. The recession lowered the demand for services related to properties and their ownership exchanges, and, at the same time, the government cut agencies’ budgets. The quantities of survey procedures (especially parcelling, private road surveys, demarcations) continued to decline. The decline was about 10 per cent compared to 2023 and about 15 per cent compared to 2021.
In 2024, there were about 88,000 property ownership registrations, or title registrations, in the entire Finland, which was 8.5 per cent less than in 2023. About 186,000 property mortgages were registered, which was about 8 per cent more than in 2023.
We at the NLS carried out several procedures to enhance our productivity. As part of balancing our finances, we reviewed the future extent of our service point network. Based on the review, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry laid down a decree in accordance with which the NLS will have 26 service points across Finland. The northernmost service point is in Ivalo, and the southernmost in Mariehamn.
Registration of apartment ownership required rearrangements in our operations. We transferred personnel to ownership registration duties to facilitate services. Changing and renewing our operations showed our personnel’s capacity to change.
Contacts by customers increased in various channels. During the year, we were contacted about 400,000 times, of which about 116,000 were calls and about 100,000 face-to-face visits to the customer service point. To facilitate customer service, we piloted a reservation system in customer service and developed electronic services for registering owner-occupied flats, for example.
We have focused on the wellbeing of our personnel for years. We are pleased to say that The Union of Professional Engineers in Finland rewarded the NLS as the best employer of engineers in 2024, which was excellent news.
What does 2025 look like?
This year, we will continue our renewal endeavours already started in the development of services required by our customers. However, it is clear that safety and economy are challenging phenomena for us also this year. The state of Finland’s economy also requires renewal and adjustment of our operations to the financing frames available.
We do see that we have a task of societal importance and we want to do it as well as possible. Basic geospatial data, positioning, registered data maintained by the NLS, and infrastructure like that of the Metsähovi research station will be important also this year and the years to come.
We have been entrusted with basic information resources and related service operations, and constant efforts from the society are needed in order to ensure their continuity. We believe strongly that by developing our registers and the Metsähovi research station we can ensure that the society will get critical ownership information regarding land and shares in housing companies, as well as positioning services, also in the event of disruptions and exceptional circumstances. In these challenging times, this will require cooperation, setting priorities and making choices.
We promise that also this year we will work in accordance with our vision “We know the Earth – we secure the future”.
Pasi Patrikainen
The author is the Director General of the NLS.