Pihateillä

Pihateillä is a Finnish term used in housing, urban planning, and real estate discussions to refer to private access roads located within housing plots or courtyards. The word combines piha, meaning yard or courtyard, with teillä, a form related to roads or ways, indicating a road-like area that serves a group of properties rather than the public street network. Pihateillä typically form an internal network that provides vehicle and pedestrian access from individual properties to a public street or to shared facilities such as parking areas or entrance courtyards. They are not public roads and are usually privately owned and maintained, often by a homeowners’ association, a housing cooperative, or a property owners’ consortium. Rights of passage and maintenance obligations are usually set out in deeds, housing regulations, or local land-use plans, and they may be subject to local regulations on weight limits, speed, or parking.

In planning practice, pihateillä must address issues such as drainage, snow and ice removal, lighting, and accessibility for emergency services. Their design may vary from gravel drives to paved approaches, depending on budget, property density, and local standards. The term is more common in Finnish-language planning documents and property descriptions and is less likely to be used in public road classifications.

See also: yksityistie, pihapiiri, private road and access terminology in Finnish planning.