Identification of potentially favorable areas for the transformation of summer cottages into permanent residence in Raseborg municipality

Traditionally Finland has been home to the largest number of summer cottages in the world. In 2019, there were over half a million summer cottages in Finland. However, the purpose of summer cottages has begun to change. And many owners want to transform their summer cottage to their place of permanent residence. The municipality of Raseborg is in its “land-use picture” considering potentially suitable locations for transforming summer cottages into permanent residences. On the one hand, this will help the municipality to attract new permanent residents and promote the development of settlements. However, this also means an increase in the pressure on urban services, given that many summer cottages are located far from inhabited agglomerations. That is why, in addition to the building condition, the remoteness of the summer cottage from the most important urban infrastructures must also be assessed. Thus, the aim of the work was to assess the location of summer cottages in the municipality of Raseborg from main infrastructures and identify the most favorable locations for the transformation of a summer cottage into a permanent residence, using QGIS analysis. The scattered location od summer cottages in Raseborg municipality means limited areas are available for converting SC into a permanent housing