Housing services give you more time to live a good daily life

People are now more prepared to use a variety of services to make their daily lives easier, enjoy experiences and pursue self-improvement. Additionally, as people increasingly value ecology and ease, the sharing economy is becoming more popular and ownership less important.

“Many people feel that communal areas and shared cars and goods that improve residential comfort provide great added value. Shared use of amenities can give a touch of luxury to everyday life while ensuring efficient resource use. For example, instead of owning your own exercycle, you can go to the building’s well-equipped gym, and rather than having a personal sauna that you don’t use all the time, you can book the building’s sauna and enjoy its views and jacuzzi. Shared ownership is also sustainable – sharing premises and goods saves resources,” says Lotta Toivonen, Project Manager for Service Development.

In 2019, we commissioned a survey to find out what annoys Finns in their daily lives and what gives them joy and energy. The survey also assessed the current use of various housing services and future interest in them. The survey results provided a good basis for designing services that make life easier.

“We want everyday life in our properties to be as smooth and sustainable as possible. We build high-quality housing in the best urban locations – residents save time on commuting to work and shopping trips. When we also provide housing services that make their daily lives easier, the residents can focus on the things that give them the most joy and well-being,” says Toivonen.

SRV is initially launching residential services for the residents of the Kalasatama Towers – first for those in Majakka, which was completed in November 2019. A dense urban centre like REDI is a good place to create new innovations and pilot services.

Services only a few clicks away

Kalasatama Tower residents can book premises and order services to make their daily lives easier from Asumi, a digital and easy to use platform. Asumi creates a new kind of residential experience by connecting service providers and people as well as efficiently sharing communal areas.

“The services were developed in close cooperation with the residents of the Kalasatama Towers and businesses in the REDI shopping centre to ensure they serve the needs of the residents as well as possible. The intended uses and rules of the Majakka communal areas were also planned together all the way from the construction phase. The residents’ joint planning evenings have created good neighbourhood spirit. We’ll continue to engage in joint development in the future, too,” says Toivonen.

The House Team – which includes lobby services, maintenance and cleaning – is the heart of residential services. Lobby services assist residents from early in the morning to late at night. For an additional fee, residents can order home cleaning, a handyman or dog walking, for instance. The House Team is supplemented by the service offerings of REDI businesses, from which residents can order services such as laundry, catering, aquarium cleaning or a communal car. In addition, Asumi serves as a channel for communications with building operators, and residents can read bulletins and peruse information on their apartment.

“Based on a time-use study by Statistics Finland, we calculated that a Kalasatama Tower resident who uses the offered services saves 61 minutes a day that they would’ve otherwise had to spend dealing with annoying daily matters. This adds up to as many as seven hours a week. They can now use this time to do things they like,” says Toivonen.

Survey on what annoys people in their daily lives

• The things that make Finns happy in their daily lives are their friends, spending time together with family and friends, children and grandchildren, cooking and eating, exercise, hobbies, work and colleagues.
• Both women and men find cleaning the most annoying thing in their daily lives. Getting too little sleep and the time spent on taking care of things are also among the Top 3 annoyances for both men and women.
• The residential services that people use most often are takeout food delivery and car maintenance.
• Cleaning services have the greatest growth potential – as many as 42 per cent of the survey respondents would be interested in ordering such services in the near future, even if they do not use them much yet. There is also interest in home maintenance services and online grocery shopping.
• People would be more likely to use various housing services if it were easier to buy them.