“Residents Want Digital Housing Services” – TOAS
The collaboration between the Tampere Student Housing Foundation (TOAS) and One4all began a few years ago with the Lumipuu pilot property in Hervanta. The pilot introduced a digital notice board and booking calendar for reserving laundry rooms, club rooms, and sauna slots.
After the successful pilot, the service has been expanded, and by next year it will be in use in more than ten TOAS properties. Based on the experiences at Lumipuu, other sites have chosen to make use of the One4all Mobile app, booking calendar, access control, and sauna heating automation connected to bookings.
Digital services meet the expectations of young residents
One of the TOAS properties using One4all’s solutions is the large new Hippos housing complex. When the final apartments are completed in spring 2026, the property will include an impressive 586 apartments and around 800 residents.
According to TOAS Property Director Jari Ahonen, the residents are mostly young adults for whom digital services are a natural part of daily life. TOAS wants to respond to their expectations and provide modern housing services that make everyday life easier.
Our residents have the latest technical tools — tablets and smartphones now, and perhaps something else in the future. We’re investing in online-based services that residents can use anytime, anywhere.
Creating community through housing
Hippos has been designed to combine efficient housing with a sense of community. According to Jari, housing today must be efficient to keep rent levels reasonable. The most common apartment type in Hippos is a compact studio, which makes shared spaces a vital part of the overall living experience.
TOAS provides residents with a wide range of shared facilities, such as a co-working area, quiet study room, craft room, bike maintenance space, lounge, and of course, traditional saunas and a laundry room. This extends living beyond the four walls of one’s own apartment and supports a sense of community in everyday life.
For example, we provide study spaces so residents don’t have to study at home.
The use of saunas, laundry rooms, and meeting rooms is managed through the booking calendar, which is linked to the access system. Residents make bookings with just a few clicks in the One4all Mobile App and enter the space conveniently using a PIN code.
The digital notice borads enhance communication
Digital solutions aren’t limited to the mobile app. Hippos also features three large displays that provide residents with up-to-date information and important announcements. A 75-inch horizontal display was installed in the lobby to ensure messages stand out in the large space.
According to TOAS Marketing & Communications Planner Eveliina Toikkonen, TOAS aims to make all information easily accessible in digital form.
“We could share even more information. The goal is to promote our facilities, and in the future, the displays could also feature information from our commercial tenants, such as the student restaurant or the university gym. We’re constantly getting new residents, and not everyone immediately knows what the building offers, so it makes sense to promote the available services,” Eveliina explains.
Residents can easily check the displays as they pass by to see, for example, general announcements, office opening hours, and public transport schedules.
Next up: a digital second-hand marketplace
The collaboration with One4all has been built on open dialogue and practical development.
“We’ve been very satisfied because One4all has listened to our needs. It’s a big deal that their technical side and support are strong. They’re easy to reach, there are no delays. You get help when you need it,” Jari sums up.
Next, TOAS plans to focus even more on strengthening the circular economy. At Hippos, a digital second hand marketplace is planned to launch within the resident app during the coming winter. The goal is for residents to be able to sell and donate items to each other directly through the app, following the second-hand trend popular among young people.
“That’s something we’re very interested in — making the circular economy work better. A current challenge is that when residents move out, furniture is often abandoned in stairwells. That creates both a safety hazard and a cost for us. If residents can sell or donate items to each other electronically, they’ll get affordable or even free goods, and we’ll avoid the risks and costs caused by abandoned furniture,” Jari explains.
Hippos also features TOAS’s newest digital solution, Lainamaatti. Lainamaatti is a smart loan locker system that supports the sharing economy, making it easy and secure to share everyday items. Read more about Lainamaatti:
A loan locker system brings the sharing economy to life at TOAS Hippos
This article is an ai-generated translation of the original article in Finnish.