City of Salzburg

Only 51 affordable apartments were built in 2023

Residential construction activity in the city of Salzburg has also completely collapsed in the subsidized sector.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

What a shame! Despite a population of 150,000, only a handful of subsidized units were handed over last year. This measly rate shows that this type of housing construction has also collapsed. The non-profit association's hands are tied.

Extremely high rents, hardly any available building land, astronomical land prices, high interest rates and stricter lending guidelines for borrowers. The oh-so-sad song about the housing problem in Salzburg is an old chestnut. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to die down any time soon.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

The reason for this assumption are sobering figures from the non-profit building associations (GBV) of the Salzburg regional group. The association of all non-profit housing developers from Gswb to Heimat Österreich presented a construction report for 2023 yesterday, which states that only 582 subsidized apartments were handed over in the entire province. After all, the figure for the current year should be slightly higher at just over 700.

With land prices of 1,000 euros upwards per square meter in the city, we are no longer in a position to build subsidized apartments.

Wilhelm Fenninger, Obmann-Stellvertreter Gemeinnützige Bauvereinigung Salzburg

A closer look at the statistics reveals abysses. Abysses that underline how bad the situation is for the less affluent, especially in conurbations, particularly in the city of Salzburg. A measly 51 apartments - 45 rental apartments and six buy-to-let apartments - were handed over in the city of Mozart in 2023. Where living space is most urgently needed, the construction of affordable housing has come to a standstill. "Yes, we are not at the forefront of new construction in Austria," says Stephan Gröger, Chairman of the GBV regional group.

A paltry 51 keys were handed over in the city in 2023 - there were just as many in the much smaller Lungau region.

(Bild: GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Finding properties has top priority
Just to put things in perspective: with 70,000 apartments, GBV is responsible for around a third of all households in Salzburg. If, as in the example above, with 150,000 inhabitants in the city of Salzburg, only around 50 new subsidized apartments come onto the market each year, this does not come close to meeting demand. As a result, the housing shortage is getting worse.

There are many reasons why too little is being built, why too little can be built. One of the main ones: "We can't find any affordable properties in the city of Salzburg," explains Gröger and calls on the new city policy to "get the new spatial development concept(REK, note) off the ground as quickly as possible."

"Market for owner-occupied apartments has collapsed"
Gröger also calculates where the problem with the land lies. For a square meter of building land, one should pay 350 to a maximum of 400 euros, so that one does not slip over 700 euros with ancillary costs and thus the eligible area. However: In the city of Salzburg, some top districts such as Aigen or Gneis have been asking prices of over 2,000 euros per square meter for years. Subsidized housing is almost impossible to realize there anyway, but also elsewhere. "And in addition to the basic costs, there are the gross construction costs: these have also long been between 4800 and 5000 euros per square meter."

A direct consequence: "The market for condominiums has also collapsed," analyzes GBV deputy chairman Wilhelm Fenninger.