Rent control

Internal SPÖ resistance to own law

Sporrer drafted the law on the value protection clause.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Imre Antal, zVg)

There are apparently rumblings within the Red Party - and this in connection with the latest political prestige project, the package for affordable rents. Trade unionists are expressing massive reservations about the draft law on the value protection clause and are even warning of further price increases for tenants. The Greens also see social coldness among the Social Democrats.  

Actually, it should have been a great success for the SPÖ: In the most recent Council of Ministers, SPÖ Vice-Chancellor and Housing Minister Andreas Babler adopted a rental package for affordable and secure housing. Key points include price caps for old and council apartments, a price brake for unregulated rents in new builds and the extension of the minimum time limit from three to five years.

"Historic step", or "higher prices"?
"A historic step", emphasized Babler. All of these promises are also to be made possible by "clarifying" the value retention clauses. "Now that the rent freeze has provided a clear legal regulation on how value protection clauses in rental agreements must be structured in future, the uncertainty that has arisen due to illegal clauses in the past will be eliminated," the SPÖ officially explains.

But what the party does not say on the new SPÖ1-TV channel is that there is massive criticism from within its own ranks and from the SPÖ environment. During the review of the draft law, the Chamber of Labor, the Tenants' Association and the powerful Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) all expressed their criticism. "The implementation of the planned changes would mean that a large number of tenants and consumers in general would be faced with higher prices in future," the union said. 

"SPÖ sacrifices itself to the real estate lobby"
Criticism has also come from the Greens. National Councillor Nina Tomaselli told the "Krone" newspaper: "It is shocking how carelessly the SPÖ is sacrificing the interests of tenants in favor of the real estate lobby. Babler is even ignoring the harsh criticism from organizations close to the SPÖ and is stubbornly sticking to his plans, which put tenants at too many disadvantages".

Ministry refers to Supreme Court
When asked, Anna Sporrer's red Ministry of Justice, which drew up the draft and sent it for review, simply stated: "The federal government has agreed in the government program to create legal certainty in the area of the value protection clause. The reform is intended to put continuing obligations on a reliable legal basis and follows the decisions of the Supreme Court."