First-time homebuyer – find out whether the exemption applies to you

You must pay the transfer tax if you don’t move in to the house/apartment in 6 months

• after the date when you signed the contract, or
• after the date when you received the right of ownership to a new property, i.e. a newly built flat/apartment.

If you move in later to live there on a permanent basis, you can request refund. You can submit a refund application in MyTax or on a paper form.

If all the requirements for exemption are met, we will refund the tax you paid.

If you buy a lot for building the house, you must pay the transfer tax for it, submit the transfer tax return, and ask for registration of the transfer of title to you first.

Later, you can request refund when construction is finished and the authorities have inspected your house and declared it ready and you have moved in. You can submit a refund application in MyTax or on a paper form. If all the requirements for exemption are met, we will refund the tax you paid.

Requirements on the site of a building

In a planned area, the exemption from transfer tax applies to no more than the plot as it is set out by the local zoning plan. If you have bought a site in an area that has not been zoned, you can get an exemption from transfer tax for that site. The site used for the calculation of real estate tax is considered to be the tax-exempt building site. However, the maximum area is 10,000 square metres of land.

The exemption covers the land and the residential houses located on it (such as the house where you live and an outbuilding).

As a result, you must pay transfer tax on the part of the price that you pay for any land outside the exempted maximum area. Examples of what you must include in such a price would be what you paid for woodland, field areas, or other sites suitable for construction of houses. In this case, you must present a breakdown of the consistent parts of the price.

Alternatively, you can ask the Tax Administration to give you a statement on how much transfer tax you have to pay.

Read more about the first-time homebuyer’s exemptions when buying real estate (in Finnish and Swedish only, link to Finnish)

You do not have the right to get the first-time homebuyer’s exemption if you have previously been the owner of 50% or more of:

• A flat, apartment or house, located in Finland or outside Finland – this also includes any ownership of residential property as an investment
• A flat, apartment or house that you have received as an inheritance or gift.

For example, if you currently live in a home for which you got a first-time homebuyer’s exemption, owning 50% or more of it, and you want to increase your ownership share by buying an additional percentage of the home for yourself, you cannot be granted the first-time homebuyer’s exemption for that purchase.

However, the tax exemption is not prevented if you own a summer house, real estate for recreation purposes, shares in a leisure house, or you have had a right-of-occupancy.

The exemption only concerns permanent homes.

It may be that you buy a parking or storage space together with your home. Nevertheless, they are left outside of the exemption if the parking and storage spaces can be separated from the whole and can thus be sold separately (e.g. a specific series of shares in the housing company) to a buyer.

It is possible to buy the first home in stages. If what you buy for yourself represents less than half of the ownership of the home, you must pay transfer tax on your purchase.

If you make a further purchase later and after that, you own at least half, you can request refund. You can submit a refund application in MyTax or on a paper form.

If all the requirements for exemption are met, we will refund the tax you paid.

In a planned area, the exemption from transfer tax applies to no more than the plot as it is set out by the local zoning plan. If you have bought a site in an area that has not been zoned, your maximum exemption from transfer tax is for 10,000 square metres. This definition only limits the maximum tax-exempt size of the building site. The site used for the calculation of real estate tax is considered to be the tax-exempt building site.

You must pay transfer tax on the part of the price that you have paid for any land outside the tax-exempt maximum area. Examples of what you must include in such a price would be what you paid for woodland, field areas, or other sites suitable for construction of houses. In this case, you must present a calculation that shows the consistent parts of the price.

Alternatively, you can ask the Tax Administration for a statement in order to obtain a calculation of the transfer tax you must pay.