Share the article

Keila – a small town with city-like opportunities

Keila is a family-oriented small town that values education and healthy living, with very good transport links to Tallinn. This safe and green centre offers its residents the same opportunities as big cities – the town has all major grocery store chains, a municipal and private school, three nursery schools, a hobby school and excellent opportunities for sports and active living.

The former cosy garden town has become the centre of attraction in the western part of Harju County. The population of the green and safe small town, which is just a 30-minute drive from the capital, is increasing rapidly, which makes the town more and more attractive to companies. Keila already has more than 10,000 residents, but the rapidly emerging new developments and people’s desire to live away from the din of the capital attract increasingly more people to the small town.

Keila becoming the centre of attraction of the western part of Harju County is not a major surprise to most people – the town has excellent infrastructure, very good transport links to the capital and everything necessary for everyday activities. The town has a secondary school (Keila School), and early childhood education is offered by three nursery schools and several childcare institutions. In addition, Keila has a school and childcare institution following the Waldorf method. Extracurricular education is offered by several hobby groups and sports clubs, including a music school, an athletics club, a swimming club and a football, basketball and volleyball school. It is worth noting that residents of Keila have a higher education level than the average of both Estonia and Harju County, which is in part due to the town’s well-developed entrepreneurship with jobs that require higher education.

There are three large parks in Keila (Keskpark, Jõepark and Männik), which along with green areas and the beautiful pine forests in the western part of the town make Keila a green and child-friendly small town. The town’s health trails are located in an area of more than 70 hectares, which consists of limestone and is covered with pine forest. The trails are rare in terms of their location, as they are very close to the town centre. The health trails are appreciated among locals due to their diverse sporting and recreation opportunities – there are jogging, mountain biking, skiing, roller skating and hiking trails, as well as a skiing and sledding hill and football fields with real and artificial grass. Keila also has an adventure park for children and a disc golf park with 18 baskets.

In addition to the health trails and parks, people can lead an active lifestyle in the swimming pool (water park) of the Keila Health Centre, in group trainings and the gym, in the athletics stadium, on basketball and volleyball courts, and in the skate park and moto hall. The Niitvälja Golf Centre and Laulasmaa surf beach are just a 10–15 minutes’ drive away.

Keila has plenty of activities for people who have not caught the fitness and sports bug. The town has a cultural centre, a church, the Harju County Museum, a therapy centre, a library, festival grounds and a youth centre. Several other interesting places, such as the Arvo Pärt Centre, Padise manor and monastery, Rummu quarry, Keila-Joa manor and park, and the Paldiski limestone bluff, are also within the distance of a short drive. Just 15 minutes by train or car takes you to the beautiful sandy beaches of Kloogaranna, Laulasmaa and Lohusalu, where you can enjoy the summer sun with family and friends.

With its great infrastructure, Keila is attracting more and more new residents and is thus becoming increasingly popular among companies. The most recent example of this is the Keila Centre developed by Harju KEK, which will open its doors in the first quarter of 2025. The new Keila Centre with a total area of 13,000 m² will become a community centre with various offices, stores and service facilities, which will give the people of Keila and the surrounding area the opportunity to spend even more time in their home region. The future centre will have a grocery store, a sporting goods store, home goods, clothing and shoes, eateries, beauty services, pet products and services, as well as a new sports club, cinema and children’s area.

Keila Keskus. Foto: Harju KEK

Considering all this plus Rõõmu Kaubamaja, the various eateries, hardware stores and all the major grocery store chains, Keila is no different than cities in terms of the opportunities it offers. For example, Keila has Espak, Bauhof and Keila Ehituspood, and everyday shopping can be done in Maxima, Selver, Rimi, Grossi grocery store as well as smaller local shops. The Scottish pub Scottish House, the representative of Asian cuisine Vaga Mama, Kegel café, SNCO Brewery and Tap Room, Kraft microbakery and café, the American-style family restaurant Legends Diner and the well-known Peetri Pizza, along with many other eateries, are perfect for quick food breaks as well as spending time with loved ones. Keila also has a local dog school and several beauty salons and beauty service providers.

Based on all of the above, residents of Keila no longer have a practical need to leave their hometown – they can do all their daily tasks and shopping at home. However, should the desire or job-related need arise to travel from the small town, Keila is connected to the capital and the Tallinn ring road by a four-lane class I road, and the public transport of Keila – trains and buses – is the region’s best, according to the North Estonia Public Transport Centre. For example, an electric train departs to Tallinn more than 60 times a day and every 15 minutes during peak hours. The train takes you to the centre of Tallinn (from the Keila stop to the Tondi stop) comfortably and without traffic jams in 38 minutes, whereas during peak hours it takes 40–45 minutes by car to get to the city centre from Tabasalu, Laagri and Randvere in Viimsi, which are all located on the outskirts of Tallinn. During the peak hours of especially bad days, in Tallinn it can take the same amount of time to drive from home to work, but when travelling by train, you can just wave at all the cars stuck in traffic.

We are convinced that Keila has a good, safe and green living environment with activities for families with children, grandparents as well as young people planning to start a family – this is why we built the cosy and modern Keila Home apartment buildings. The last apartments are still available in the buildings completed in autumn by Everaus Kinnisvara. The apartment buildings are located in the centre of Keila, on the historic Tuula road. The street has tall greenery and since it borders the stone wall of the Keila Church, it also has high cultural and environmental value. Most of the street runs along Jõepark, which is just 400 metres from the apartment buildings.

The newly built apartment buildings are characterised by outstanding architecture, a well-designed layout, energy-efficient solutions (energy class A) and premium interior finishes. Common areas with a unique herb and fruit garden make the apartment buildings even more valuable.