Living in Finnish Lapland: rentals from Rovaniemi to Ivalo, seasonal worker housing, moving and the cost of living. A studio in Rovaniemi is about €560 a month.
StayInLapland: living in Finnish Lapland
Where to find a rental, what everyday life costs and how people here live through the year. A studio in Rovaniemi costs about €560 a month.
Lapland has 176,215 residents, more than a third of them in Rovaniemi. Each page covers the local rent level, the landlords and where to apply.
Lapland’s largest rental market. Studios run short in August and September, when students move to town.
Start with the towns’ own housing companies: Itätuuli alone has over 600 flats in Kemi.
Lapland’s fastest-growing municipality. In winter, thousands of seasonal workers compete for the same flats.
The municipality’s own company, Inarin Vuokra-asunnot Oy, lets flats in Ivalo, Inari and Saariselkä. Apply to it directly.
Kemijärvi, Sodankylä and the other municipalities
Coming for a season of work, moving for good, or in need of a roof for a few weeks?
Staff housing, a holiday apartment on a seasonal lease or a municipal flat. What to ask before you sign.
Address notification, winter tyres, daycare, electricity contract and the polar night. The first-month checklist.
Rent, electricity, fuel and housing allowance in figures. What is cheaper here and what is not.
From a month to a winter: a furnished rental flat, a cabin by the week or staff housing, and what the tenancy law covers.
LaplandWork.com lists the open jobs in Lapland: ski resorts, hotels, activity companies and healthcare. Seasonal jobs often come with housing, so look at the vacancies before you hunt for a flat.
LaplandWork.com: open jobs in Lapland’s ski resorts, hotels and healthcare.
Ylläs in July 2026: the snow cannons wait for the season. Photo: LaplandVibes.
Here a season is more than weather. It decides how you get around in the evening, what you do at the weekend and when people look for a flat.
In the far north the sun does not rise at all: in Nuorgam the polar night lasts from 25 November to 17 January. Skiing does not stop. About 50 kilometres of trails on Ounasvaara in Rovaniemi are lit, and on clear evenings the aurora shows from your own yard.
The light returns fast, but the lakes are still frozen. This is when people ice-fish, ski on the crust of the snow and ride snowmobiles along marked trails. Studded tyres may stay on after March if the conditions require it.
In Nuorgam the sun does not set from 16 May to 29 July, and at the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi it stays above the horizon around Midsummer. Evenings are spent outdoors, on the lake and at the cottage. Blackout curtains are the key purchase of the summer.
Fell birches and dwarf shrubs turn red and gold, and the darkening evenings bring the aurora back. Autumn is also moving season: new students arrive in Rovaniemi in August and September, and that is when competition for studios is at its fiercest.
Can you live in Lapland all year without a car?
In Rovaniemi, yes: the centre, the university and the shops are within walking or bus distance. In the fell villages and smaller municipalities a car is in practice essential, because distances run to tens of kilometres and buses are few.
How much does a rental flat cost in Rovaniemi?
According to Statistics Finland the average free-market rent for a studio in Rovaniemi was €18.66 per m² in April–June 2026 and €14.35 for a two-room flat. Multiply by the floor area: a 30 m² studio is about €560 a month and a 50 m² two-room flat about €720.
Does the employer house seasonal workers?
Often, but not always and not for free. In the ski resorts employers rent row houses and holiday apartments for staff, and the rent usually comes off your pay. Ask about housing in writing when you get the job offer.
According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute the polar night lasts almost two months in Nuorgam (25 Nov–17 Jan) and only four days just before Christmas in Sodankylä. Rovaniemi has no true polar night, because the line runs slightly north of the Arctic Circle: the winter sun stays low, but midday is light, and snow multiplies what little light there is.
Our sister site laplandwork.com walks through residence permits, the personal identity code, the tax card and a bank account. The home and everyday practicalities are on the Moving to Lapland page.