Why Are Not Finns Building Summer Cottages Anymore?
In the 1970s and the 1980s, building a summer cottage was the best thing a man could do
. Spending time at the summer cottage (in Finnish: mkki) was the most relaxing and most of all the most affordable choice for a Finnish family holiday.
The price of the land has sky rocketed since the 1970s - that is also one of the reasons why the building of new summer houses has declined.
Building a summer house started off as the privilege of the wealthy families in Finland. Families spent mostly summers at their cottages and all-year-round cottages became more popular later in the 1980s
1/3 of the half a million summer cottages located in Finland still remain only in summer time use.
Buying one of these, walking to the nearest Rautia and rolling up your sleeves does wonders. Its not rocket science to transform a summer cottage into all-year-round cottage.
From Rautia you get close to everything you need in the renovation of a summer cottage. They even know a lot of tips and tricks for building a summer house or renovating one.
In the 1980s, there was a big boom in building summer cottages. No wonder because to take your whole family for a vacation on an airplane those days was definitely not the cheapest option to spend your holiday. Spending time at your own summer cottage with your family was considered as the best option.
Thanks to those days we have now one summer cottage per 10 persons in Finland. That is quite a lot when considering the purpose of use and locations of the summer cottages, which are a bit different than in other countries.
Finland is a country of thousands lakes. Building a summer cottage on a lakeside these days is almost the most expensive hobby you can find. Airline tickets to Asia cost only a fraction of what it used to in the 1980s - a lot of Finnish families find their peace and quiet on holidays in Asia or somewhere else abroad.
Maybe one day summer cottages will become the new black again. If we look at the basis of the current economy, I think most of us are happy to spend their time at their own summer cottage.