A man swapped life in the US to live on a $31k island in Finland — for “less than a house deposit”.
Oliver Russell, 24, who is half American and half Finnish would spend every summer in Finland visiting his friends and family.
After growing up in Laguna Beach, California, US, and moving to Fort Collins, Colorado in 2020 he struggled to get inter-state tuition — which is more affordable — so he looked elsewhere.
He thought about moving to Helsinki, Finland, to study and made his dream a reality in August 2022.
After moving to Finland, Oliver met his girlfriend, Helena Tomaszewska, 20, and the pair bought the island — which they saw advertised on a property website — in March 2024 for just $31,000.
The island is two and a half acres and was inhabitable when it was bought.
Since then, the couple have built decking for their tent and an outhouse with the ultimate goal being to build a summer cabin and sauna — to spend their holidays there.
Oliver, an international business student, from Laguna Beach, California, said: “I fell in love with the idea of going to Finland and going to school there.
“As a Finnish citizen, I got free schooling and it has been awesome here and I have really enjoyed my time here.
“In Finland, the summer cottage life is a huge part of the culture and I would come out here every summer.
“I loved the summer cottage life and wanted one of my own.
“Every time we go to the island it doesn’t feel real that it is ours — it is so nice to be out there.
“It is so quiet and because it is an island nobody can stumble across it.”
After moving to Finland in August 2022, Oliver and Helena fell in love with the idea of having a summer house.
Oliver went on a real estate website and found the island that had been vacant for 10 years for $36,569.
He said: “I was looking more for fun, I was going through a real estate website and found the island.
“It ended up being cheaper than a normal lot I could buy so we jumped on it.
“I offered $31,000 and got accepted.”
The first time the couple stepped foot on the island was in June 2024, the land was covered in trees and moss and mostly uninhabitable.
Oliver started by felling trees to make space to build a deck for a tent the couple planned to stay in.
He said: “We made a frame out of logs that we felled from trees and I got some decking from a hardware store.
“We then built an outhouse and I am now trying to build a shower structure so we can wash while we’re on the island.
“We wanted to get the base camp set up so we have a comfortable place to stay while the big building happens next year.”
Oliver and Helena spend most of their weekends on the island working on their dream.
The aim for the couple is to build a summer cottage and sauna. In Finland, there is approximately one sauna for every two people.
Oliver said: “The ultimate dream is to build a log cabin for the summer.
“But first we want to build a sauna cabin – based on the rules, one-third of the plot has to be a sauna cabin.
“We haven’t set ourselves super hard deadlines as there have been a lot of learning experiences.”
Oliver does not have any experience in construction and admits it has been a challenging journey so far.
Despite this, the couple plan to build everything themselves.
Oliver said: “It is a very big commitment, especially now with me and Helena both being students.
What do you think?
“Time is a big thing, doing research and getting work done on the island has been hard.
“It has been fun though, the things we are doing are very new to me.
“Felling a tree for example, I have never done that before until now and it can be pretty dangerous.”
