1 billion euro package

Housing offensive: making property affordable

The struggling sector and house builders are to be given a helping hand.

(Bild: P. Huber)

The housing and construction offensive has been discussed for a long time, now the government is getting down to business. Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) presented their plan on Tuesday. This is intended to create more living space, make property affordable again and stimulate the construction industry.

Inflation, sky-high real estate prices and increasingly precarious working conditions have dashed the dream of home ownership for many people in this country. Yet owning your own four walls is considered to be the best provision for old age and creates both freedom and security in the long term.

Federal Chancellor Nehammer now wants to put a stop to this trend and has stipulated in his Austria plan that the home ownership rate must rise again by 2030 - from 48 to 60 percent. To make property affordable again, the government is launching a major offensive in three parts from today.

GBV Chairman Klaus Baringer, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens), Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and GBV Deputy Chairman Herwig Pernsteiner at the press conference on Tuesday

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor are visibly satisfied.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Creation of new residential units
Among other things, 25,000 renovated or new residential units are to be created for this purpose. 10,000 of these are intended for future owners and a further 10,000 for tenants. 5,000 would be refurbished and thus brought back onto the market. Nehammer explained that the federal government wanted to spend one billion euros on this, which in turn would lead to investments of five billion euros. At the same time, this step would secure around 40,000 jobs in the construction industry.

Two ancillary fees to be abolished
In addition, two significant ancillary fees, which particularly affect young families, are to be abolished for the first home. The land register registration fee and the lien registration fee for the first 500,000 euros would therefore be abolished. Overall, this would mean a saving of up to 11,500 euros.

Favorable housing loans
The government also wants to give the federal states the opportunity to grant particularly favorable housing loans. This envisages a maximum loan interest rate of 1.5 percent with a volume of up to 200,000 euros.

Nehammer hopes that this will bring us a good deal closer to the goal set out in the Austrian plan of having half a million more homeowners in the country by 2030.

However, further steps are still necessary in order to stimulate the construction industry, for example. The government intends to present additional measures on Wednesday after the Council of Ministers.