{"id":11994,"date":"2026-06-26T02:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/?page_id=11994"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:16:05","slug":"responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Responsibility for the use of tax funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The construction of the Malmi Airport area is an economically unprofitable project, the pre-construction of which alone costs hundreds of millions of euros of Helsinki taxpayers’ money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, the residential construction of Malmi Airport in the 2000s was about single-family houses, but due to the extremely demanding soil of the airport area, their square meter price would have become absurdly high. After the 2002 Master Plan for Malmi Airport was overturned<\/a> in the Supreme Administrative Court in 2006, the plan was modified to a massive apartment building project with over a million square meters of floor space, but still the City of Helsinki’s master plan material (Studies of the Helsinki City Planning Department’s General Planning Department 2015:1, p. 44\/72<\/a>, in Finnish) put it bluntly in 2015: “The floor space according to the draft master plan (1.2 million square meters) is not sufficient for the economic feasibility of the Malmi Airport area.” The price estimate at that time for the costs of the preliminary construction of the airport area alone was 365 million euros (Table 14, pp. 49-50<\/a>, in Finnish).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Table 14: Costs borne by the City of constructing public spaces, areas and structures in the Malmi airport area. The row “Malmin lentokentt\u00e4” shows the costs of streets (320 M\u20ac), parks and recreation areas (35 M\u20ac), and other structures and waterfront areas (10 M\u20ac) at Malmi Airport. Other surrounding areas will add the costs by 50 + 5 + <5 M\u20ac. i.e. <60 M\u20ac, bringing the total cost to more than 400 M\u20ac (2015).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2025 money<\/a>, that amount is 448 million euros, but it has been estimated based on the cost level of 2015. Construction costs<\/a> have risen sharply in recent years: the overall construction cost index increased by 25% in 2015-2026, and by as much as 30% for construction materials. It is therefore expected that the City’s tax funds will be sunk just into the stabilization and preliminary construction of the deep and watery sulfate clay<\/a> of the Malmi airport area to the tune of at least well over half a billion<\/em> euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, a council initiative<\/a> (in Finnish) was submitted in Helsinki City Council to update the cost estimate of residential construction at Malmi Airport. The initiative was signed by 17 city councilors. However, the Urban Environment Committee and the City Government proposed to end the consideration of the initiative, stating that “the pre-construction studies have been refined and will continue to be refined as the planning and construction of the area progresses”. The City Council voted to end the consideration of the initiative<\/a> at its meeting on June 2, 2021, the same year that construction costs began to rise sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision of the City Council at that time practically means that the City has free hands to sink an unknown amount of taxpayers’ money, certainly in excess of half a billion euros, into the silt of Malmi Airport, until the commitment to the project is so far advanced that it is no longer considered possible to back down (the so-called sunk cost fallacy<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the figures the City has published itself<\/a>, it has elsewhere within its borders residential construction reserves in excess of all long-term needs, and nowhere else is the soil as unsuitable for construction as at Malmi Airport. Malmi was designated as the location for the Airport as early as the 1930s on the grounds that no decent settlement could ever be built there. The scale of the foundation construction required in the area has been highlighted by, among others, Suomen Kuvalehti<\/a> (in Finnish): the total length of the required piling is 14,000 km, while the largest piling project in Finnish history so far in Kemi (2022) required “only” 600 km<\/a> of piling. The loose and deep clay soil with several groundwater layers is also very likely to be sulfate clay, which forms sulfuric acid when disturbed and is an extremely poor soil type for construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Probable occurrence areas of sulfate clay in Malmi Airport area (GTK 2021).<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some representatives of the City’s leadership have argued for the profitability of the project by claiming that every euro invested in it will be returned, even many times over, thanks to private investments encouraged by its leverage effect. The argument is based on smaller-scale projects in the past that have been implemented in a different economic and global situation. In recent years, the City has tried in vain to sell hundreds of its houses and buildings which only cause it maintenance costs. Right next to the Airport in Tapanila, over a hundred price-regulated apartments completed in 2024 remain vacant<\/a>, generating nothing but expenses to the City and its taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is irresponsible to base billion-euro financial risk-taking with taxpayers’ money on a prediction of the future based on the past and assuming that entrepreneurs in the ongoing crisis of the construction business, and with the global economy in a difficult-to-predict state, would want to and be able to invest within the planned schedule in an area with extremely poor soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a special additional burden for residential construction, Malmi Airport is at home and abroad one of Finland’s best-known endangered cultural heritage sites. A new home on the ruins of a nationally significant, world-class cultural heritage site<\/a> and valuable meadow network site<\/a> will not necessarily interest citizens whose will in the matter has been blatantly ignored<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new City Council elected in 2025 has the power and responsibility to decide on the rational use of the City’s tax funds. The taxpayers of Helsinki cannot be assumed to provide an open tab without current and realistic cost estimates of projects implemented with tax funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malmi Airport, the only free-schedule runways in the capital region<\/a>, the City’s largest contiguous meadow paradise and a nationally significant built cultural heritage site (RKY) are still there and can be kept for the needs of environmentally friendly future aviation. The City Council has a duty to review the entire project taking into account the situation that is in many ways different than a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The construction of the Malmi Airport area is an economically unprofitable project, the pre-construction of which alone costs hundreds of millions of euros of Helsinki taxpayers’ money. Originally, the residential construction of Malmi Airport in the 2000s was about single-family houses, but due to the extremely demanding soil of the airport area, their square meter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11994","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nResponsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Responsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The construction of the Malmi Airport area is an economically unprofitable project, the pre-construction of which alone costs hundreds of millions of euros of Helsinki taxpayers’ money. Originally, the residential construction of Malmi Airport in the 2000s was about single-family houses, but due to the extremely demanding soil of the airport area, their square meter […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Helsinki-Malmi Airport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/18645317752\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T09:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"261\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mly_ry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/\",\"name\":\"Responsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/image.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T23:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-26T09:16:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/image.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/image.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Etusivu\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Responsibility for the use of tax funds\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Helsinki-Malmi Airport\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Helsinki-Malmi Airport\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/05\\\/cropped-transparent_150x150-1-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/05\\\/cropped-transparent_150x150-1-2.png\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150,\"caption\":\"Helsinki-Malmi Airport\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.malmiairport.fi\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/groups\\\/18645317752\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/mly_ry\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Responsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Responsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport","og_description":"The construction of the Malmi Airport area is an economically unprofitable project, the pre-construction of which alone costs hundreds of millions of euros of Helsinki taxpayers’ money. Originally, the residential construction of Malmi Airport in the 2000s was about single-family houses, but due to the extremely demanding soil of the airport area, their square meter […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/","og_site_name":"Helsinki-Malmi Airport","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/18645317752","article_modified_time":"2026-06-26T09:16:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":261,"url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@mly_ry","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/","url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/","name":"Responsibility for the use of tax funds - Helsinki-Malmi Airport","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png","datePublished":"2026-06-25T23:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-26T09:16:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/responsibility-for-the-use-of-tax-funds\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Etusivu","item":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Responsibility for the use of tax funds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/","name":"Helsinki-Malmi Airport","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#organization","name":"Helsinki-Malmi Airport","url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/cropped-transparent_150x150-1-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/cropped-transparent_150x150-1-2.png","width":150,"height":150,"caption":"Helsinki-Malmi Airport"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/18645317752","https:\/\/x.com\/mly_ry"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11994"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12024,"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11994\/revisions\/12024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malmiairport.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}