Finland Times

Oulu Port. Photo Source: Business Oulu.

The City of Oulu has undertaken a plan, already in implementation in part, to build a new Oulu around the idea of a ‘sustainable northern city,’ says Oulu City General Planning Manager Paula Paajanen.

 

This September, the city reached 200,000 citizens, raising the population of the region to a handsome quarter million.

 

Oulu is the fastest growing city in the Nordics and, it terms of demography, it’s the youngest in the entire Europe.

 

It is also the logistic centre of Northern Scandinavia. The Oulu Airport, second only to Helsinki, has received this year one million passengers, posting a 5.4 per cent year-on-year rise.

 

Against this background, the general plan for the New Oulu strongly focuses on building compact and diverse urban structures to make provisions for a total of 30,000 new residents and 15,000 new jobs by 2030.

 

As of October, the number of building permits issued for housing is actually 68 per cent higher than in last year. Especially new residential buildings are being constructed in the city centre.

 

Pekka Seppälä, the head of the city’s Building Control Department said he believes the city will grant building permits of up to 1.5 billion euros in market value by the end of the year.

 

The New Oulu plan also offers a number of location options for trade, offices and other work places as well as industry, for instance, places like data centres and other venues requiring vast space.

 

The need for new business facilities and confidence in business prospects are reflected also in the exceptionally high number of reservations for industrial building sites, which is now at its highest for years. Reservations for office and industrial land is already doubled compared to the corresponding numbers in last year.

 

All in all, it seems a great and profitable time to invest in Oulu.