Government Wants to Further Relieve Tenants

"We have quickly intercepted the rent increases in the regulated sector, which would have affected over 1 million apartments from April 1," said Vice Chancellor and Housing Minister Andreas Babler (SPÖ). The planned extension of the minimum lease terms from 3 years to 5 years will not be completed before the summer.

Tenants Should Continue to Be Relieved

"We will extend the lease terms to at least five years," announced Babler at a press conference on Monday. "In the coming years, the next rent cap should come," the Vice Chancellor further anticipated. The first measure has brought significant relief to 69 percent of tenants nationwide. Currently, work is being done on standardizing tenancy law and extending the rent cap to the remaining areas, including a regulation for commercial leases. This requires some time. "Tenancy law is a very complex area," emphasized Babler. "It is also a legal challenge to work this out." A new regulation for private rents is also being pursued subsequently. "What we have experienced in recent years - an inflation that hits with full force, must not happen again," said the SPÖ chairman. Since 2010, rents in Austria have increased by 70.3 percent, and in the past two years by around 25 percent.

Rent Cap Only for Part of the Housing Market

The rent cap currently only applies to the regulated sector of the housing market, but not to the unregulated, free market. "In private new construction, there are no tenancy law restrictions," clarified the chairwoman of the Vienna Tenants' Association and SPÖ housing spokesperson Elke Hanel-Torsch. For 2025, guideline and category rents have been frozen - this affects around 516,000 apartments, including almost all old buildings, - as well as the index-linked fees of cooperative apartments (around 698,000 apartments) and municipal apartments. Next, these rents may only increase by a maximum of 1 percent in 2026, and by a maximum of 2 percent in 2027. From 2028, a cap on rent increases of a maximum of 3 percent will apply in the "entire housing sector." Without the rent cap, rents would have increased by an average of 3.16 percent in April this year according to inflation. The affected tenants saved approximately 138 million euros in 2025 alone due to the measure.

Since the scope of the rent cap and the details of the new regulation are unclear for many affected, the Tenants' Association will start a free consultation campaign next week (June 10 to 13) at its headquarters in Vienna. On these days, one can come by without an appointment (with their rental contract) or send it by email to mietpreisstopp@mietervereinigung.at. "You cannot leave the tenants alone with this issue," said the housing spokesperson. In the future, a standard rental contract should also be generally available, which can provide security for both the tenant and the landlord.

FPÖ Demands More Funds for Social Housing

The FPÖ believes that Wiener Wohnen continues to rip off tenants. "A comprehensive housing policy is necessary to make housing affordable again," said FPÖ construction spokesperson NAbg. Michael Oberlechner. For this, more funds are needed for social housing, and at the same time, municipal housing tenants must be relieved. "We Freedom Party members demand a rent reduction to cooperative levels in the fully financed sector," the construction spokesperson further stated. "That would be a reduction of about one-third."

The Austrian Association of Real Estate Industry (ÖVI) advocates for close coordination between politics and the industry and calls on the federal government to engage in an intensive dialogue with the real estate industry associations - as announced in the government program - to discuss possible measures, "to jointly overcome the challenges and not sacrifice them to a superficial populist tactic." The benchmark has been effectively frozen since 2023. The 2023 inflation rate of 7.8 percent could not be claimed by landlords, nor could the 2.9 percent average annual inflation expected in 2024. "In reality, rent has become cheaper," said the association.

Project Developers and House and Landowners Association Criticize

The Association of Austrian Project Developers (VÖPE) desires a "sustainable housing policy instead of years of patchwork." Inflation is "not a price increase, but the devaluation of our money," said VÖPE President Andreas Köttl. "Those who simply cap the indexation of rents are just postponing the problem - and depriving housing developers of the opportunity to invest in climate-friendly buildings," he stated via a press release.

The rent price cap naturally finds little favor with the Austrian House and Landowners Association (ÖHGB). "What the SPÖ presented today as a major social policy achievement is, in truth, a massive anti-business intervention in property rights and an ideologically motivated campaign against private property," explained ÖHGB President Martin Prunbauer. In the end, everyone would suffer: landlords who withdraw, owners who have to endure the loss of value - and tenants who can no longer find apartments. "Regulations are known to exacerbate the housing shortage for those with lower incomes." Such measures would drive away investors and create a housing shortage. According to Prunbauer, the question should be: "How do we create conditions that make investments in rental apartments worthwhile again?"

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.