The City of Helsinki had reserved a plot for the UPM headquarters, but the company applied for an extension for the reservation. The company was granted an extension until the end of June 2010. ”I have nothing to report on the matter”, commented Real Estate Manager Kaj-Erik Lindberg from UPM when questioned whether the forest giant plans to abandon the construction project entirely.
As far as is known the city has offered UPM the plot for a lower-than-normal price for ”industrial policy reasons”. The quoted price is approximately EUR 1,300 per square metre of permitted building volume.
Reportedly, Senate Properties intends to secure hundreds of euros more per square metre for its own plots of land.
”If the market price does not rise sufficiently high, we will not sell the plots at all”, notes Director Heikki Laitakari from Senate Properties
The last sentence make me fall off my chair...re-read it please... You can clearlu see that the current law accomodate speculation. In addition, the fact that in a very dense city as Helsinki, such beahviour is allowed is clearly outrageous. In most of developed countries land that is not used is heaveluy taxed in order to stop this type of counter productive behaviour...
Well law makers are sleeping or do not want to disturb the guys that fund them indirectly ...
Coming back to UPM, this shows you that big and old businesses (Wood, Banks, Energy, Media) are still in control of the political and economical landscape in this country...a big disapppointment.
2 comments:
nice points all around keep up the good posts!
I guess those law makers are not sleeping.
Under such beer democracy, big corporations = the gov + parliament + other elite.
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