The highest square meter rent at the start of 2022 was in Salzburg at EUR 10.17 and the lowest in Burgenland at EUR 6.57.
According to the statisticians, the actual amount of the monthly rent also depends on the rental segment (old building/new building), the rental period and the size of the apartment. In the first quarter of 2022, the monthly average rent including operating costs per main rented apartment was 567.5 euros in Germany according to microcenus data, the average operating costs amounted to 2.2 euros per square meter or 147.7 euros per apartment. According to Statistics Austria, the rental costs refer to an extrapolated 1.69 million main rental apartments in Austria.
Rents are highest in western Austria: In Salzburg, the average monthly rent per square meter including operating costs in the first quarter of 2022 was EUR 10.17, followed by Vorarlberg (EUR 10.07) and Tyrol (EUR 9.53), according to the Statistics Austria on APA request. The square meter rent was somewhat lower in Vienna at EUR 8.79, Styria (EUR 8.11), Upper Austria (EUR 7.88) and Lower Austria (EUR 7.49). Rents per square meter were lowest in Burgenland at EUR 6.57 and in Carinthia at EUR 6.72. Across Austria, the average monthly rent was 9.84 euros per square meter for private main rentals, 7.49 euros for cooperative apartments and 7.07 euros for municipal apartments.
Increase in single-person households
In recent years, the proportion of single-person households has risen noticeably. In 2010, the share was 36.2 percent and rose to 38.0 percent by the beginning of 2022 – this corresponds to more than 1.5 million households in Austria. According to Statistics Austria, Burgenland had the smallest proportion of single-person households in the first quarter of 2022 at 32.8 percent, and the highest in Austria was Vienna at 44.8 percent. Almost half of those living alone are 60 years or older.
Single-person households are financially more heavily burdened by their living expenses than multi-person households. “If you look at the housing expenses as part of the total consumer spending, it shows that a tenth of households spend almost half of their budget on housing and accordingly have less available for transport or leisure,” writes Statistics Austria. 67.8 percent of these households with a very high share of expenditure on housing are single-person households, with women aged 60 and over living alone being over-represented.
Source: Nachrichten
