During the summer, large housing companies were the most active in transferring their lists of shares, with their boards and building managers having taken our message seriously. Wonderful! When a housing company acts early, the building manager has enough time to identify any difficulties. For example, death estates can be investigated with the concerned parties without any tight schedules so that most work will already have been done before the usual rush in the autumn.

We are making good progress, but we still need to pick up the pace. By the end of August, 40% of the lists of shares of housing companies had been transferred to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System. As this figure indicates, there are still many housing companies that have work to do. Now is the time to encourage building managers and chairs of housing company boards to act!

Time to move from understanding to action

In May, we studied whether our messages and those of many others regarding the Residential and Commercial Property Information System had reached housing company boards – those who need to act this year. Nearly everyone who was interviewed (97%) had heard that housing companies needed to transfer their lists of shares to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System by the end of 2023.

Some have already become confused about everything housing companies and shareholders need to do: the deadline for housing companies is at the end of this year, while individual shareholders have ten years to act. The easiest way is to register your shares no later than when you buy your new home. During the transaction, you can register your shares yourself or authorise your bank, for example, to register them for you. Shares must be registered within two months of the transaction.

Housing companies should start transferring their lists of shares urgently if they encounter any problems and require support. We are happy to help by telephone and at transfer clinics that can be attended by building managers and chairs of housing company boards – those who need to transfer lists of shares.

I would like to encourage every building manager and board member to pick up the pace and transfer their housing company’s list of shares. The transfer must be completed before the end of this year when it is still free of charge. Let’s all do each other a big favour on this path of Finland’s housing companies towards digitalisation and shift to a safer way of maintaining share certificates.

Pasi Patrikainen

The author is the Director-General of the National Land Survey of Finland.

In the National Land Survey of Finland blog, different authors discuss various matters topical to the National Land Survey of Finland.