AK warns: Next strong rent increase in April

She calls for a limit to a one-time rent increase per year plus a rent cap of two percent and an end to the time limits. “It’s quick and it works,” says AK expert Thomas Ritt.

Around 776,000 tenants are affected by the increase of 8.6 percent. “These increases in price will result in additional costs of around 162 million euros,” Ritt calculated in a broadcast on Tuesday. He gives two examples: With an average apartment size of 65 square meters in a private old building, the average additional costs across Austria are just under 490 euros a year. A family in a 90 square meter apartment will pay around 620 euros more in rent in Vienna and around 960 euros in Vorarlberg.

Three out of four new rental contracts in the private segment are only available for a limited period, “quite apart from the illegal surcharges for new, limited old building rents, which make living very expensive,” says Ritt. And anyone suing for their excessive rent and thus their rights must fear that the contract will not be extended, Ritt points out.

The Ministry of Justice published the increase in the benchmarks in March. Anyone who signed a rental contract in a private old building – built before 1945 – after March 1, 1994 is subject to the benchmark system. The increase therefore affects all contracts concluded in the past 27 years, as they (often) have corresponding adjustment clauses in the contract, as well as new contracts. The benchmarks vary from state to state. There is no rent cap in Austria like other countries have introduced. In France, for example, the National Assembly had already voted in favor of and a rent cap in July 2022.