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While the National Council in Vienna was only able to agree on a one-off housing subsidy, the city-owned GWG in Linz will collect a rent cap of 4.3 percent. This is intended to provide partial relief, especially for those people who are dependent on affordable housing, as Mayor Klaus Luger and City Councilor Dietmar Prammer (both SP) announced yesterday in his capacity as GWG Supervisory Board Chairman.
With more than 20,000 apartments, Linzer GWG is one of the ten largest apartment providers in Austria. Around 4,000 apartments are affected by the increases in guideline rents provided for by law from April 1st.
“Want to contribute to relaxation”
About three quarters of all GWG apartments are subject to the Housing Charity Act (WGG). This is based on the cost recovery principle, so that only the costs actually incurred may be charged to tenants. In contrast, about 4,000 apartments fall under the Tenancy Act (MRG) and would be affected by an 8.6 percent increase. Around 12,000 apartments fall into this category throughout Upper Austria. The other 190,000 apartments owned by non-profit property developers are subject to the WGG.
The current increase of 8.6 percent in the standard rents for MRG apartments affects tenants with newer rental contracts much more than those with old contracts that were concluded before March 1, 1994. In many cases, the tenants with the more recent rental contracts are families with lower incomes, who are now particularly affected by the statutory increase.
“By waiving 50 percent of the permitted rent increase, we want to contribute to relaxation – knowing full well that the problem can only be partially solved,” says Prammer, who accuses the federal government of failure.
Source: Nachrichten
