Municipalities should dedicate more to social housing

Since 2021, there has been a new category for building land dedications in Upper Austria: “social housing”. Municipalities can require the applicant to reserve up to half of the property area for subsidized multi-storey residential buildings. This is a measure to get sharply rising property costs under control.

So far, as reported, not too many municipalities have used this. On Tuesday, Economic and Spatial Planning Councilor Markus Achleitner (VP) and Upper Austria Chamber of Labor President Andreas Stangl appeared together in public to appeal.

“It is up to the cities and municipalities to use this powerful instrument,” said Achleitner. So far, around 40,000 square meters have been dedicated. “However, as many municipalities as possible should conclude agreements with property owners.” One reason why it is still taking time is that land use plans and local development concepts are only renewed every ten to 15 years.

Stangl said some communities didn’t even know the new dedication category existed. Because of the price of building land, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create affordable housing. “Housing is a fundamental right,” said Stangl, who is also in favor of an incentive system for municipalities so that more social housing is dedicated.

Sabine Naderer-Jelinek, SP mayor of Leonding, and Martin Pelzer, VP mayor of Altmünster, also appeared at the press conference.

Naderer-Jelinek said that as early as the 1970s, central areas of the city were treated as development areas for social housing. There aren’t that many options left at the moment, except on the former Uno shopping site.

Pelzer explained how the new category had already been used in a dedication in his community. “In an area like ours, this is of immense importance, as real estate prices here are literally skyrocketing.”

Achleitner also referred to measures to ensure that more existing building land is developed, such as higher maintenance contributions and building land security contracts.

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