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But business has been going better again since the middle of the year, he says.
The current general conditions mean that many Austrians can no longer afford to own their own home, the broker said in a press release. “The lending guidelines definitely need to be adjusted; the current regulations often present even high earners with insurmountable hurdles in order to create property at a young age.” This was also confirmed by the recent sharp decline in booking figures.
According to Immounited, the number of bookings on the domestic real estate market fell by around a quarter from January to October in 2023 compared to 2022, according to Remax. If applied to the entire year of 2023, there would be around 120,000 real estate bookings. That roughly corresponds to the level of 2017.
Also read: Real estate loans: Banks counter supervision
According to projections, at the end of 2023 the cumulative value of the recorded transactions will be around 33 to 34 billion euros. This roughly corresponds to the level of 2019/2020. That is a quarter less than 2022 with 44 billion euros according to Immounited, but still a very good value, according to Remax.
“Our sales and the number of properties sold also fell in 2023,” said Reikersdorfer. Compared to the record year of 2022, twelve percent fewer properties were sold this year. When asked by APA, Remax did not provide a sales comparison to 2022. The difference from 2021 is 6 percent this year, the broadcast said. If individual real estate agents publicly reported a drop in sales of between 30 and 40 percent or even a market standstill, then Reikersdorfer said this was “incomprehensible”.
According to Remax, the cumulative results have been improving month by month since the middle of the year. We are constantly catching up, says Reikersdorfer.
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