Res­i­den­tial dis­tricts

Oulu is divid­ed into 23 main dis­tricts that are fur­ther divid­ed into city dis­tricts and even fur­ther into neigh­bour­hoods that com­pete in attrac­tive­ness and appeal. Many of them also have an active neigh­bour­hood soci­ety.

The vari­ety of areas and nature in Oulu is charm­ing, and you will nev­er get bored explor­ing the city. The munic­i­pal­i­ties of Haukipu­das, Kiimin­ki, Oulun­sa­lo, and Yli-Ii merged into the City of Oulu in 2013, mak­ing the city even more excit­ing than before. The vari­ety of neigh­bour­hoods is almost end­less, cater­ing for many tastes.

There is also a won­der­ful vari­ety of place names in Oulu, most of which have to do with the his­to­ry or nature of the respec­tive dis­trict. They all share their part of the sto­ry of Oulu with a high­er grade of appeal.

Neigh­bour­hoods in the beat of the city cen­tre

Enjoy the beat of the city or a laid-back sea­side atmos­phere near you – dis­cov­er them in Oulu city cen­tre and the pop­u­la­tion cen­tres right around it. Vaara and Pokki­nen inside the city cen­tre grid plan hold the best of ser­vices and archi­tec­ture from art nou­veau to 2020s engi­neer­ing. The idyl­lic and beau­ti­ful Hol­li­ha­ka and Lev­eri offer won­der­ful views and mar­itime ambi­ence. Not far from the cen­tre, you will also find Myl­ly­tul­li in an old indus­tri­al neigh­bour­hood, Intiö with its old wood­en mil­i­tary bar­racks, and Van­hat­ul­li, which is a com­bi­na­tion of the old and the new.

Just a stone’s throw away is Rak­si­la with its enchant­i­ng wood­en dis­trict and a cen­tre for many sports and fit­ness activ­i­ties. Sur­round­ed by ser­vices is also Limin­gan­tul­li with plen­ty of new apart­ments. The Limin­gan­tul­li dis­trict used to house a cus­toms office where goods from the coun­try­side were inspect­ed before being allowed in the town for trad­ing. Hence the name – Limin­gan­tul­li means ”Limin­ka Cus­toms” in Eng­lish!

Lush and idyl­lic areas to call home

Just one kilo­me­tre from the city cen­tre you will enter a whole new world if you set your course for the small house neigh­bour­hood of Kar­jasil­ta, for exam­ple. Once select­ed as the best res­i­den­tial dis­trict in Fin­land, Kar­jasil­ta is not only dot­ted with love­ly, colour­ful wood­en hous­es but also old apart­ment build­ings – all equal­ly charm­ing! You will see and feel the close­ness of nature also in Höy­htyä, Nokela, Lin­tu­la, and Mäntylä. The Sel­vaag hous­es in Höy­htyä, the woods and ponds in Lin­tu­la, and the peace­ful streets and parks in Nokela and Mänty­la all exude the unique Oulu hous­ing cul­ture.

While the pre­vi­ous areas rep­re­sent the south­ern side of Oulu, in the north you will encounter the enchant­i­ng dis­tricts of Väli­vainio, Isko, and Pyykösjärvi. All three have plen­ty of detached hous­ing, and Väli­vainio will become part of the inner city over the nat­ur­al course of future city devel­op­ment.

The banks of Oulu Riv­er will lead you to the atmos­pher­ic and vibrant neigh­bour­hoods of Hint­ta, Myl­ly­o­ja, Haa­pale­hto, Kirkkokan­gas, and Kyn­sile­hto. Main­ly con­sist­ing of detached and row hous­ing, these are excel­lent areas for sports and oth­er activ­i­ties from jog­ging trails to skate parks.

Urban hous­ing to suit many tastes

Are you look­ing for an edgy, urban lifestyle? Look no fur­ther! Select­ed as the neigh­bour­hood of the year, Tuira is the epit­o­me of ver­sa­til­i­ty and mul­ti­plic­i­ty, for exam­ple when it comes to cul­ture and events. The river­side part of Tuira is one of the most beau­ti­ful areas in Oulu, with the beach and the trails along the riv­er cater­ing for active yet relax­ing moments.

Right next door to Tuira is Koskikeskus with a gen­er­al plan designed by Alvar Aal­to, the most famous Finnish archi­tect by inter­na­tion­al stan­dards. The atmos­phere between the 1950s apart­ment build­ings is insu­per­a­ble! The Oulu Riv­er estu­ary is packed with small islands. Clos­est to the city cen­tre is Pik­isaari Island, a pic­turesque neigh­bour­hood known par­tic­u­lar­ly as the home of artists and arti­sans.

Sense the sea near home

The sea wind blows in Oulu, and there are sev­er­al sea­side res­i­den­tial loca­tions to choose from, too. On the shores of Hietasaari Island, you can find Nal­likari Beach, also known as the Riv­iera of the North, along with sev­er­al har­bours and oth­er places for activ­i­ties such as hob­bies and recre­ation. Hietasaari is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from Top­pi­lansaari and Top­pi­lansal­mi next to it – both of which also offer some of the most won­der­ful water­side scenery in Oulu. The state­ly and his­toric har­bour store­hous­es nowa­days offer unique hous­ing alter­na­tives. What is more, this is close to the dis­trict of Oulu Hous­ing Fair, which is under con­struc­tion to hap­pen in 2025.

Fol­low the shore­line south or north to find fresh and cosy areas one after the oth­er. In the north, you will come across Kel­lo and Mar­tin­nie­mi for charm­ing home­steads, while in the south you can dis­cov­er the var­i­ous love­ly neigh­bour­hoods of Oulun­sa­lo.

Also sit­u­at­ed by the sea is Äimärautio, a unique dis­trict in Oulu because it has no per­ma­nent res­i­dents at all. Instead, it hous­es the adorable Äimärautio com­mu­ni­ty gar­den with allot­ments and huts that are sought-after spots for spend­ing the sum­mer in Oulu.

Peace­ful and spa­cious hous­ing

Oulu has plen­ty of peace­ful areas where fam­i­lies and sin­gle peo­ple live in hap­py har­mo­ny. North of the city cen­tre are the neigh­bour­hoods of Koskela and Task­i­la, where the atmos­phere is tran­quil and most of the build­ing stock con­sists of row hous­es or detached hous­ing. Ver­dan­cy and small hous­es can also be found in Kuiv­asjärvi, Rajakylä, Pate­nie­mi, and Heruk­ka, for exam­ple.

Mov­ing north, there are also the neigh­bour­hoods of Jääli which are pop­u­lar for fam­i­lies and con­tain detached hous­es and row hous­es from sev­er­al peri­ods. More recent­ly built neigh­bour­hoods include Saarela and Talvikan­gas, both of which are very acces­si­ble con­cern­ing children’s day care and schools.

Per­fect for an active life

Are you a stu­dent or lead an active life oth­er­wise? There is a pad in Oulu for you, too! The most ide­al areas for stu­dents are the Kai­jon­har­ju and Lin­nan­maa neigh­bour­hoods near the Lin­nan­maa cam­pus. These are also clever choic­es for peo­ple work­ing in the Lin­nan­maa tech­nol­o­gy vil­lage. Get­ting around is easy also from homes near the Kon­tinkan­gas cam­pus and Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal, in Pel­to­la, for exam­ple.

Locat­ed next to good pub­lic trans­port route and the acces­si­ble, excel­lent Oulu cycling net­work are the neigh­bour­hoods of Alp­pi­la, Top­pi­la, Kauko­vainio, and Puo­livälinkan­gas. The build­ing stock in these areas con­sists main­ly of apart­ment build­ings – some charm­ing­ly old­er, ren­o­vat­ed ones, and oth­ers more recent­ly built. Along the Oulu Riv­er there is the dis­trict of Laani­la from where the city cen­tre, Lin­nan­maa, and Kon­tinkan­gas are eas­i­ly and quick­ly reach­able.

Pic­turesque neigh­bour­hoods along the riv­er

One of the most well-known land­marks in the scenery of Oulu is the Oulu Riv­er, with post­card-like res­i­den­tial dis­tricts built on both sides along it. Clos­est to the city cen­tre is Värt­tö, with love­ly scenery, beau­ti­ful parks, and a beach with a mari­na bring­ing life to the neigh­bour­hood. Near the con­cen­tra­tion of work­places and schools in Kon­tinkan­gas and the ser­vices in Rak­si­la is the Oulun­suu dis­trict with a ver­sa­tile selec­tion of old and new hous­ing avail­able.

The Maikku­la and Knuu­ti­la dis­tricts have a lot of detached and row hous­ing along with adorable small apart­ment build­ings here and there. The nature is tan­gi­ble in the neigh­bour­hoods on a pine wood ridge along the riv­er. Slight­ly fur­ther on is Madekos­ki with a vil­lage-type atmos­phere right next door to Turkansaari Open-Air Muse­um. On the oth­er side of the riv­er is San­gin­suu, locat­ed where Oulu Riv­er and its trib­u­tary Sang­in­jo­ki meet.

Plen­ty of ser­vices around

Wel­come to an abun­dance of ser­vices! It is not always in your inter­ests to shop or sun errands in the city cen­tre, in which case good ser­vices near your place of res­i­dence are gold­en. For exam­ple, the new dis­trict of Rita­har­ju is right next to the Idea­park shop­ping cen­tre. All the oth­er ser­vices in the area are unbeat­able, too. On the oth­er side of town, the Kaakkuri cen­tre has a con­cen­tra­tion of gro­cery stores and more spe­cialised shops. The hyper­mar­ket of Rusko and oth­er ser­vices near it are won­der­ful­ly reach­able for the res­i­dents of Rusko, Heik­in­har­ju, and Kor­ven­suo­ra neigh­bour­hoods.

Approx­i­mate­ly 20 kilo­me­tres north­east from the city cen­tre is the res­i­den­tial dis­trict of Kiimin­ki, where the essen­tial ser­vices can be found in the vil­lage cen­tre, Kirkonkylä. At the core of the Haukipu­das main dis­trict is the Haukipu­das res­i­den­tial dis­trict with a plen­ti­ful selec­tion of ser­vices for every­day liv­ing.

Close to the nature

If you are not into urban life in the con­crete jun­gle but are more of a nature per­son, check out this sec­tion. Even though Oulu is famous for its nature that will fol­low you right into the city cen­tre, the neigh­bour­hoods set with­in nature itself have a whole dif­fer­ent atmos­phere. Head out to Iinat­ti, for exam­ple: this eas­i­ly reach­able dis­trict has a net­work of run­ning trails and a fit­ness track where you can enjoy the lush green nature around you while exer­cis­ing. The Hiukkavaara neigh­bour­hood built around the old army bar­racks of Oulu offers idyl­lic sur­round­ings com­bined with mod­ern hous­ing and ser­vices.

The biggest main dis­trict in Oulu (and the whole of Fin­land) is Yliki­imin­ki. This area is par­tic­u­lar­ly char­ac­terised by water­ways, with sev­er­al lakes and the beau­ti­ful Kiiminki­jo­ki Riv­er shap­ing the land­scape.

Along the banks of Iijo­ki Riv­er is the main dis­trict of Yli-Ii with mag­nif­i­cent bore­al forests set­ting the scenery. This area has a lot of his­to­ry dat­ing back to the Stone Age, show­cased in the archae­o­log­i­cal exhi­bi­tions of Kierik­ki Stone Age Cen­tre.