"Dramatic situation"

High housing costs: SPÖ sharply attacks government

The SPÖ is calling for a rent freeze until the end of 2026, after which the increase should be capped at a maximum of two percent.

(Bild: EVELYN HRONEK)

On the day before the National Council meeting, the SPÖ sharply criticized the government's planned housing package. The Social Democrats will therefore table their own motion on Tuesday, which provides for a "rent freeze" until 2026, for example. Club leader Philipp Kucher spoke of a "dramatic situation" with regard to housing costs in Austria.

The housing package planned by the government does not include a single measure to make housing more affordable, explained SPÖ Club Chairman Philip Kucher and SPÖ Lower Austria Party Leader Sven Hergovich on Tuesday. For example, it is still unclear what will happen to the planned interest rate cap for housing loans after it is limited to 2028.

SPÖ: Approval of the government package still open
It remains to be seen whether the SPÖ will approve the government's housing package in the National Council meeting on Tuesday. Kucher criticized that details were still missing: "On Wednesday, we will make this very specifically dependent on what the federal government presents."

The housing package planned by the government does not include a single measure to make housing more affordable.

SPÖ-Klubobmann Philip Kucher

Bild: APA/EVA MANHART

What the government is proposing
The first part of the housing package will be debated and probably adopted in the plenary session on Tuesday. The biggest point is that the federal states will be allowed to take out additional loans via the Federal Financing Agency for the purpose of housing subsidies with a volume of 500 million euros, whereby the effective interest burden on the federal states is to be limited to 1.5 percent per year until 2028 through federal subsidies. These funds are earmarked for housing subsidy loans from the federal states amounting to a maximum of EUR 200,000 (and a subsidy term of at least 25 years) with a maximum interest rate of 1.5 percent. In the worst case scenario, the expiry would mean an additional burden of several hundred euros per month for borrowers, according to the fears of the SPÖ.

The SPÖ is calling for a rent freeze until the end of 2026, after which the increase would be capped at a maximum of two percent.

(Bild: EVELYN HRONEK)

"Rent freeze", then cap the increase at a maximum of 2%
The SPÖ will table its own motion on Tuesday, which provides for a "rent freeze" until 2026, after which a provision is to be introduced that allows rent increases of a maximum of two percent.

In Lower Austria, the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition has made extremely severe cuts to housing subsidies. Every fourth person has difficulties affording housing.

SPÖ-NÖ-Landesparteichef Sven Hergovich

Bild: krone.tv

"House builder loans": Interest rate cap of a maximum of 3%
Also on the SPÖ's wish list is an interest rate cap of a maximum of 3% for "house builder loans". This is to be limited to loans of up to 300,000 euros. It would be financed by skimming off the banks' excess profits, which would be a "question of justice". The interest rate cap would cost the taxpayer nothing at all, emphasized Hergovich, who also referred to the situation in Lower Austria, where the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition had made "extremely severe cuts" to housing subsidies. One in four people had difficulties affording housing. Rents had risen by up to 25 percent in two years and over two million people in Austria were renting.

There are also major problems with home ownership: More than 500,000 households are stuck in a variable-interest "house builder" or housing loan: "In the meantime, completely normal middle-class families are having great difficulty repaying their house builder loans," said Kucher. Families suddenly have to bear additional costs for interest repayments of 400 euros per month.