Working for decades, or just a month: How expensive building land is in Austria

Working for decades for building land – or just one month: Anyone who wants to buy a 500 square meter building plot in Kitzbühel has to pay on average the gross salary of 29 years and one month. In Jennersdorf, this building plot is paid off after just 4 months and in Nikitsch, also in Burgenland, in around one month, according to the conclusion of the current OGM purchasing power study. Regional income differences have already been taken into account.

An average price of 2,527 euros was paid for one square meter of building land in Kitzbühel between 2019 and 2023. In Jennersdorf in southern Burgenland, however, the building land costs 27 euros and in Nikitsch 10.2 euros.

However, there are a number of outliers in Austria: the communities surrounding Kitzbühel such as Kirchberg, Aurach, Reith and Oberndorf are also expensive places to live. Building land in and around Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck as well as in Dornbirn is also comparatively expensive. But tourism hotspots such as Seefeld or Lech are not exactly cheap for home builders either.

In general, however, building land tends to be more expensive in the west than in the east of the country. In Innsbruck, building land costs 1,622 euros per square metre, in Salzburg 1,392, while in Vienna it was available for as little as 1,018 euros.

When calculating how many gross salaries (as of 2022) have to be spent on the building site, regional income differences were also taken into account. However, these are significantly lower than the costs for the building site: year-round employees in Kitzbühel earned an average of EUR 43,451 gross in 2022, while in Jennersdorf it was EUR 41,898 gross. And in Nikitsch the average gross annual income was EUR 48,159.