This may be the future of rental housing: Services also included in home rent 

SATO and MaaS Global launch collaboration pilot for housing and mobility

The rental housing provider SATO anticipates that urban housing will generate more and more needs for easy-to-access services that can even be included in the rent. One example of future housing services is mobility, and it is on this theme that SATO and MaaS Global, the developer of the Whim mobility app, announced their housing and mobility pilot for around 1,400 SATO residents in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area this week.

One of Finland’s biggest rental housing providers, SATO believes that urbanisation will boost the need for housing-related services. The fast pace of the urban environment and the diversification of the use of various services give rise to the need to create effortless sets of services for consumers. SATO President and CEO Saku Sipola envisions that a variety of services could even be included in the home rent in the future.

- It’s a natural development to package up rental housing with various services used frequently by urban residents, such as mobility and daily shopping. This will save a lot of their time and effort, Sipola says. - The collaboration pilot of MaaS Global and SATO is a good example of synergy between services. Mobility between the home and regular everyday destinations is a key part of life, and this may give rise to something new and interesting for urban housing on the whole.

According to MaaS Global CEO Sampo Hietanen, the purpose of the pilot is to collaborate in the exploration and creation of mobility services for nodes of housing – to create "mobility clusters" in places where housing and mobility needs coexist. In practice, this can mean things such as access to a rental car just around the corner from your home via the Whim mobility service.

- Housing and mobility are people’s basic needs. It’s both natural and revolutionary for us to be the first in the world to package up these services. Collaboration with SATO and residents enables the creation of a new and even more efficient set of services and make residents’ lives smoother. We’re excited about this opportunity and anticipate the pilot will be expanded in the future, Hietanen says.

The pilot is open for participation by residents of 28 SATO buildings in Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, Niittymaa, Espoo, and Tikkurila, Hakunila, Maarinkunnas, Koivuhaka and Viertola, Vantaa. The first phase of the pilot takes six months, during which the participants will get a discount on the Whim application subscription for three subscription periods. The pilot will include a joint workshop to discuss residents' experiences of using the service. Feedback and requests will also be collected through online questionnaires throughout the pilot period.

- MaaS Global and we will evaluate the pilot to consider how to develop our collaboration. I believe that in the coming months our residents and we will learn a lot not only about mobility service needs but also about the need for other services to be packaged up with housing, Sipola sums up.

For more information please contact:
Saku Sipola, President and CEO, SATO Corporation
saku.sipola@sato.fi
+358 40 551 5953

Miia Eloranta, Director of Marketing and Communications, SATO Corporation
miia.eloranta@sato.fi
+358 201 34 4200 or +358 40 164 4221

For interview requests, MaaS Global Ltd
Veera Aalto
veera.aalto@maas.global 
+358 40 742 7379

SATO is one of Finland's leading rental housing providers. SATO aims to offer a comprehensive choice of rental housing and an excellent customer experience. At year-end 2018 SATO owned around 25,900 apartments in Finland's largest growth centres and in St. Petersburg. We promote sustainable development and initiative through our operations and work in open interaction with our stakeholders to generate added value. We operate profitably and with a long-term view. We increase the value of our housing stock through investments, divestments and repairs. _The SATO Group's net sales in 2018 were EUR 290 million, operating profit EUR 273 million and profit before taxes EUR 231 million. The value of SATO's investment properties was roughly EUR 3.9 billion.
www.sato.fi _

About MaaS Global & Whim
MaaS Global is the world’s first true Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) operator with its award-winning Whim app, which provides users all city transport services in one app. With over four million trips made since its launch in November 2017, Whim is the first all-inclusive MaaS solution commercially available on the market. Whim allows users to journey where and when they want with public transport, taxis, cars, and many other options, all under a single monthly subscription. Whim has revolutionized users’ travel habits, in favor of circular modes. MaaS Global was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The company is funded by Toyota Financial Services, Karsan Otomotiv, Transdev, Aioi Nissay Dowa, Denso and Veho and the total amount of investments is 24.2 million euros.
https://maas.global/
https://whimapp.com