Loan interest rate cap

SP party leader Kucher wants to freeze rents until 2026

SPÖ party leader Philip Kucher wants rents to be frozen until 2026.

(Bild: SPÖ-Parlamentsklub/Mandl)

Philip Kucher, managing head of the SPÖ party, wants rents to be frozen until 2026 and then capped at a maximum of two percent. Furthermore, on Saturday in the Ö1 radio series "Im Journal zu Gast", he spoke out in favor of allowing a loan rate of three percent for "house builder" loans in the future.

Only on Friday, Kucher had criticized in a broadcast that prices in Austria "continue to rise". The SPÖ is therefore calling for a course correction. "If hundreds of wrong-way drivers are coming towards you on the freeway, then at some point you have to realize that you are driving in the wrong direction yourself."

Two weeks ago, the SPÖ had called for "the end of fixed-term rental contracts and the freezing of all rents" until the end of 2025 and "a maximum two percent adjustment per year thereafter". Kucher was quoted in a press release on Wednesday as saying that the upcoming National Council elections will also be a decision "between affordable housing for everyone or a republic with record profits for banks and apartment building owners".

Internal debates "harm the SPÖ"
Within the party, Kucher regretted the recent increase in discussions: "This is certainly damaging the SPÖ." Differing opinions are of course not helpful, but there is agreement that the country needs to be made more social. He is "perhaps a little old-fashioned, but in favor of discussing less about each other than with each other".