Google grabs land from Finland – Juicy returns for landowners

The digital giant Google is planning large data center investments in northern Finland. No investment decisions have been made yet, but several progress has already been made in the projects.

Kauppalehti compiled information on where the Muhosi, Kajaani and Vaala data center projects are going and what kind of money is already moving in the billion-dollar project.

Google has already bought land in northern Finland for data centers for a total of more than 50 million euros. This is evident from the information obtained by Kauppalehti from the Land Surveying Institute.

Based on them, Google’s Finnish company Tuike Finland has bought a total of more than 2,500 hectares of land from three municipalities in Northern Finland.

Most of the land deals have already been made in November 2024. At that time, Google said it was planning to build a new data center in Otanmäki and Muhok in Kajaani.

In these shops Google bought about 2,100 hectares of land and paid almost 43 million euros for the areas. At that time, the Finnish state made the biggest deals by selling Metsähallitus lands.

More stores in February

In February of this year was told about the new project In Vaala, North Ostrobothnia. At the time, Google was said to be buying hundreds of hectares of land, but the exact amount was not specified.

Based on Kauppalehti’s report, Tuike Finland made sales in Vaala of just under 460 hectares of land. The company paid a total of more than 7.5 million euros for the land.

Most of the area was sold by a listed company United Bankersin special investment fund UB Metsä. Formerly a fund did not reveal the final price at Google’s request.

However, the price tag is clear from the data of the Land Surveying Institute. Based on those, the fund made almost 5.3 million euros in the final deals. In addition to the fund, land was also sold by Vaala municipality and five private landowners.

The average price of all Google land deals is almost 20,000 euros per hectare. The prices are quite high in comparison to average prices of 2,000–3,000 euros per hectare, which forest land with trees in northern Finland is paid. For a number of landowners, the projects have therefore yielded exceptional returns.

However, data centers are billion-dollar investments, so compared to that, the sums paid for the land are a pittance.

26 million euros to the municipality’s coffers

So far, Google has not made an investment decision on data centers in northern Finland. Still, several steps forward have been taken in the projects.

The furthest is in Muhos, where the municipal government approved the zoning of the data center area in March.

Last fall, the municipality signed a 26 million euro land use agreement with landowner Tuike Finland. The one-time compensation will be paid when the site plan of the area has become legally binding.

Mayor of Muhos Kimmo Hinno says that the appeal period for the planning decision ends today, Friday. The money may therefore rush into the municipality’s coffers very soon.

According to the land use agreement, the municipality is responsible for building the municipal engineering, streets and water supply network in the area.

“Eight kilometers of brand new road is needed to get to the area. We are prepared to start building it right away in the spring,” says Hinno.

Google has already cut down trees on the lands it owns in Muhos and Otanmäki in Kajaani. In Kajaani, the partial master plan for the area is progressing to the municipal council, and the site plan will enter the decision-making phase later in the spring.

The zoning process has also been started in Vaala, and it is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2027.

An environmental impact assessment procedure is also underway for Google’s data centers in Muhos and Kajaani.

Based on the EIA reports, as many as nine data center buildings and three office buildings can go up in Muhok. The company plans eight data center buildings and three offices in Kajaani.