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The reasons for this are in particular high construction costs, expensive land prices and complicated, lengthy construction processes. At a press conference in Vienna, the newly founded initiative “Create more affordable housing” called for accelerated procedures and simpler regulations. According to housing expert Wolfgang Amann, “more subsidized housing is urgently needed in Austria”.
According to the property developer initiative, there were still 77,100 approved apartments in Austria in 2021, but this figure fell by almost 20 percent to 62,600 within a year. This is the lowest value in 10 years. “Our studies have shown that the trend will continue in 2023. We are currently assuming 51,400 approved apartments and thus a decrease of 33.3 percent compared to 2021,” expert Amann sounded the alarm. On the other hand, there is a significantly higher demand, especially in metropolitan areas such as Vienna. Increasing migration, above all by war refugees from the Ukraine, was given as one reason for this.
The “Create more affordable housing” initiative presented its five-point plan against the housing shortage on Thursday. In the future, affordable housing should be classified as a public interest, like large infrastructure or energy projects: “Affordable housing represents a public interest – and is therefore worth protecting. Here, the procedures must be accelerated and the jungle of standards clearly reduced,” demanded Thomas Drozda , CEO of the property developer ARWAG.
Drozda, who worked in politics himself from 2016 to 2021, emphasized that it was in politicians’ own interest to deal with the issue. For him, affordability is to be seen in relation to net income: “Energy prices have risen sharply compared to rent. Many people can no longer afford to live. They will not blame the opposition.”
The initiative also suggests a redesign of the objection rights for residents: “The timeline is a massive issue: the procedures are taking longer and longer and legal certainty is only given at the end,” emphasized Wolfgang Wahlmüller, deputy Director General of the Austrian Settlement Organization (ÖSW). Today there are three instances in the approval process. If there were to be a construction freeze in the second or third instance, this would be associated with considerable costs.
Even in the case of approval, lengthy procedures can lead to higher costs. Material and refinancing costs have risen sharply recently. “These are costs that are included in the rent and that the residents ultimately pay,” added Heribert Thurner, chairman of the Altmannsdorf-Hetzendorf settlement cooperative. Building law and environmental protection procedures should, for example, take place at the same time in order to be completed more quickly. However, nature conservation should not stand in the way of residential construction: “We want to work together. Nobody wants to live in unhealthy nature,” emphasized Siegfried Igler, chairman of “New Life”.
Housing expert Wolfgang Amann appealed to politicians to also address vacancies in order to achieve more affordable apartments: “There must be more incentives to encourage more people to rent out their investment properties.” In some federal states there are already initiatives that make vacancies more expensive. However, Amann also demands relaxed rental regulations for private landlords, for example lower tenant protection claims than institutional landlords.
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