Real Estate: The market has been set back 8 years

Real Estate: The market has been set back 8 years

The volume and value of transactions have fallen by 25 to 29 percent.

Sales in Austria fell last year compared to 2022 in all real estate categories such as apartments, single- and multi-family houses, buildings and land. According to the real estate agent network Remax, the total number of purchase contracts fell by 25.3 percent to 109,412. The decline in transaction value was even greater at minus 28.9 percent or minus 12.7 billion to 31.3 billion euros.

The recorded sales value therefore fell to the 2018 level. The number of transactions even fell to a level between 2014 and 2015 – a drop of eight years.

Declines in all federal states

There were declines in all federal states. In terms of value, these drops ranged from minus 16 percent in Burgenland to minus 41.4 percent in Vienna (Upper Austria minus 22.8 percent). In terms of volume, the declines ranged from minus 16.4 percent in Carinthia to minus 35.9 percent in Vorarlberg (Upper Austria minus 23.3 percent), Remax announced based on the survey together with the service provider ImmoUnited.

  • also read: Lagarde hints at a turnaround in interest rates in June

From 2013 to 2021, the number of listed properties in Austria doubled from 81,447 to 163,266, according to Remax. The decline began in 2022 to 146,526 properties. Uncertainty began due to inflation. Then came the Russian war shock and the energy price increases it triggered, which further fueled inflation – and forced the ECB to end a uniquely long and low phase of low interest rates. There was a steep rise in loan interest rates – which from Remax’s point of view came as a shock to many. All of this has noticeably slowed down the construction and real estate industry. “For this purpose, the FMA issued the KIM regulation – which was no longer necessary at this point – with a tightening of the lending guidelines, which turned the overheating of the real estate market, which had already stopped anyway,” the real estate agent complains.

Lights at the end of the tunnel

But now several lights appeared at the end of the tunnel. Here, Remax manager Bernhard Reikersdorfer refers to the government’s announced housing package, parts of which will be decided on in the National Council’s current plenary week. This is, for example, about the temporary cancellation of the land register registration fee and the lien registration fee up to an assessment basis of 500,000 euros when purchasing residential properties for personal use. Furthermore, as reported, it is planned to enable the federal states to grant particularly cheap housing loans. A maximum interest rate of 1.5 percent is envisaged for loans of up to 200,000 euros.

“This would significantly improve the ability to finance property and make purchasing property much easier for many people and make the dream of owning your own house or apartment possible again for many,” said Reikersdorfer. “The long-term loan interest rates have also been falling for some time and are around a third lower than the current variable ones because the banks are assuming a long-term interest rate cut and are already pricing this in.” Added to this are the sometimes high wage and salary agreements. Inflation is also falling. Last but not least, there is speculation that interest rates will turn around this year.

more from economics

250 cooperatives have equity capital of nine billion euros

Lagarde hints at a turnaround in interest rates in June

VW and Mobileye are expanding cooperation on autonomous driving

Signa: Another investor under discussion for a loan worth millions

: Nachrichten

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts