In September, Oikotie.fi's OmaHinta service will be made available for use by estate agents. The experiences with the joint pilot project launched on 16 August by Oikotie.fi and YIT have been positive and it has been decided that OmaHinta will be made a permanent part of the Oikotie.fi service. The service, which started by offering open bidding on new apartments, can also be used without any changes as an auction site for old apartments.
In the OmaHinta service, the estate agent and the seller of the apartment set a starting price for the apartment, based on which buyers can bid online. The bids made are posted online in real time for everyone to see.
"The pricing transparency of apartments benefits both buyers and sellers. The auction service with open bidding allows all home buyers to see a process that used to be hidden. This makes it easier for the home buyer to fix the price that he or she is willing to pay for the apartment," says Pekka Soini, President of Helsingin Sanomat Oy.
For the consumer, it is a new alternative market, where the same legislation applies to home sales as in the traditional housing market. The use of the Tupas certification service for banks when placing a bid ensures the security of the process.
Oikotie.fi's OmaHinta is the first home auction service with open bidding in Finland.
Oikotie is the classifieds service of Helsingin Sanomat. The Helsingin Sanomat business unit is part of Sanoma, the newspaper division of the SanomaWSOY Group.