The information content of the Residential and Commercial Property Information System will expand to cover housing companies’ administrative information. The Residential and Commercial Property Information System is used to maintain housing company loan information as well as information about housing companies’ maintenance and alteration work.
In the future, housing companies and lenders will maintain the information using an interface or through online transactions. The aim is to improve the availability of the information and enable comprehensive residential and commercial property information services for various operators.
We maintain the Residential and Commercial Property Information System
The National Land Survey of Finland is responsible for the ownership, pledge and restriction information in the Residential and Commercial Property Information System, as well as updating and maintaining it. The party who provides the information is responsible for the accuracy of the information. Next, information on renovations by housing companies and shareholders, company loans and maintenance charges will be added into the system. Housing companies and building managers are responsible for updating and reporting this information. For example, if a shareholder’s renovation information (such as a kitchen renovation that was carried out) is missing for a flat, the housing company will correct the error by submitting up-to-date information to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System.
What is meant by “administrative information”?
“Administrative information” refers to the information of the Residential and Commercial Property Information System that will be implemented in the system in 2025–2026. This information includes information about maintenance and alteration work (the housing company’s and shareholders’ renovation information), the report on maintenance needs (a written report submitted by the housing company’s board to the general meeting of shareholders on the company’s maintenance needs within the next five years) and company loans, loan shares and charges for financial costs.
Maintenance and alteration projects are projects for which the board’s written reports must be presented to the general meeting as referred to in Chapter 6, Section 3, Subsection 2, point 3 of the Housing Companies Act. In practice, this involves new construction, major improvement, repair or alteration projects that are recorded in the building manager’s certificate. At the same time, regular maintenance measures and small-scale repairs are not, as a rule, reported to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System.
In addition to the above, housing companies report to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System maintenance and alteration work carried out by the shareholders referred to in Chapter 7, Section 28 of the Housing Companies Act. In practice, such work of the shareholders is reported of which the shareholder must inform the board of the housing company. Repairs carried out by the shareholder are only reported after they have been completed.
Maintenance loans related to the continuous operation of the housing company do not need to be reported to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System. Charges such as maintenance, plot and capital cost charges are reported, but not fees for use, such as laundry room fees.
Although the Residential and Commercial Property Information System receives information on credits and loan shares from both lenders and the housing company, the information from different sources is not compared with each other in the system.
Schedule
According to the law, housing companies that are covered by the Residential and Commercial Property Information System must report the information on reports on maintenance needs and maintenance and alteration projects by 2026. The reporting obligation does not apply to housing companies with a maximum of five units where the shareholders do not have any housing company loans, rental housing companies, or housing companies at the construction stage.
From 2025 onwards, lenders must report company loans with the purpose of new construction or major improvement.
Credit institutions as providers and users of information
The Act on the Residential and Commercial Property Information System obligates creditors to produce credit liability data of housing companies and limited liability joint-stock property companies and to maintain them as part of the information system. From 2025 onwards, lenders must report company loans the purpose of which is new construction or major improvement, as well as loans related to repair construction. Lenders’ reporting obligation on housing companies’ credit liability information begins on 1 September 2025. The information is transferred into the Residential and Commercial Property Information System using interface applications.
Credit institutions will be responsible for ensuring that housing company loans entered into the Residential and Commercial Property Information System are correct. The housing company, in turn, is responsible for ensuring that the loan shares per group of shares are correctly stored in the information system.
Banks and credit institutions benefit from faster access to information when making credit decisions for housing transactions or evaluating the use of flats as collateral for credit. Information can be transferred mechanically between systems, which also improves the reliability of the information when manual work phases are omitted.
The Residential and Commercial Property Information System as part of the Positive Credit Register
Further development of the Residential and Commercial Property Information System also serves the Tax Administration’s Positive Credit Register. The Residential and Commercial Property Information System is used to collect housing companies’ financial information from both lenders and the housing companies. Banks and credit institutions submit information on housing company loans to the information system. Housing companies and building managers, in turn, allocate these company loans to shareholders and report the shareholders’ loan shares and charge information to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System. From the Residential and Commercial Property Information System, the loan shares and charge information are further updated to the Positive Credit Register.
The Positive Credit Register prevents household over-indebtedness and helps people manage their finances. In the future, lenders will be able to use private individuals’ credit liability information more comprehensively when assessing the credit applicant’s ability to pay.
Instructions for software suppliers for testing the interfaces
Software suppliers have the opportunity to view the technical documents for the companies’ administrative data interface services and test the maintenance interfaces in a test environment before the service is officially deployed.
To receive the technical documents for the interfaces, you need to subscribe to the mailing list by sending an email to verkkopalvelut@maanmittauslaitos.fi. In the subject, include the text “HTJ2 documentation mailing list”.
To use the test environment, you must apply for a test licence by sending an email to verkkopalvelut@maanmittauslaitos.fi. It is possible to obtain a user licence without specific grounds if the applicant has a Finnish Business ID and the use takes place within the EU area. If the applicant is granted a licence, they will be provided with the certificate required for the test use, a username and the technical documentation.
Those interested in the test environment should note that although there are no strict criteria for accessing the test environment, the use of the actual data will require a separate license and compliance with the conditions prescribed by law and regulations (Act on the Residential and Commercial Property Information System 1328/2018).
Development work is currently underway at the National Land Survey as part of a further development project of the Residential and Commercial Property Information System established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The project is funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Read more about the further development on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s website (in Finnish)
