Lack of space as a reason

Business with rental containers and rental garages is booming

Christian Rotpuller, Ulrike Porics, Erika Toth and Silvia Hergovich recently opened the "Tigerbox".

(Bild: zVg)

Yes, they do exist, the profiteers of basement-less real estate. In Burgenland, too, more and more entrepreneurs are discovering the business of outsourced space solutions - for example, family members of politicians. 

Rising interest rates, strict lending guidelines and high property prices: Fewer and fewer Burgenlanders can still afford to buy their own home and are opting for a semi-detached house, terraced house or cooperative apartment as an alternative. This means that the financing costs are shrinking, but also the usable space. This is because most new-build properties are built without basements or only with small compartments that offer hardly any storage space for all the stuff that accumulates in life. However, renting conventional storage space has also become too expensive for many individual companies. This is why the business with garages and containers for rent is flourishing.

Numerous providers, different prices
In the Eisenstadt-Umgebung district alone, facilities are springing up like mushrooms. The "Diskont Depot" chain, which operates throughout Austria, has a site in the provincial capital and offers burglar- and vandal-proof containers with an access code and U-lock from 69 euros per month. Entrepreneur Günter Buchreiter from the car dealership of the same name also offers 35 shared garages - at a price of 120 euros per month.

In Siegendorf, Alfred Buschek from Bautenschutz Buschek has his territory, in Schützen am Gebirge Dominik Müller, son of Csello Mühle owners Mario and Ulrike Müller. In Steinbrunn there is the "Garagenland" and in Trausdorf the firewood dealer Florian Andronik and his wife Martina are in big business with their company "Smart Cont".

Florian and Martina Andronik have been running "SmartCont" for two years.

(Bild: zVg)

They currently have 16 video-monitored iron containers ranging in size from 7.5 to 29 m² in their range. The cheapest cost 58 euros per month: "All of them are currently rented out, interested parties are placed on a waiting list. Most of our customers are permanent tenants and use the storage rooms as cellars. One of them parks his classic car there, for example," say the Androniks.

Lucrative side jobs and potential for expansion
Recently, family members of Burgenland (ex-)politicians have also been stirring up the container market: Silvia Hergovich, teacher and wife of state parliament president Hergovich, Christian Rotpuller, insurance employee and brother of Trausdorf's mayor Andreas Rotpuller, and Ulrike Porics, head of Schiller Bau and wife of Siegendorf's former mayor Rainer Porics. Together with retired state employee Erika Toth, they founded the company "Tigerbox Lagervermietung" and now offer containers in three sizes for rent on a 1400 m² plot of land they purchased in Eisenstadt.

Silvia, the wife of Robert Hergovich, President of the Provincial Parliament, is also a partner in "Tigerbox". Her main job is teaching at an elementary school.

(Bild: Reinhard Judt)

The smallest ten-inch box costs 82.50 euros net per month. 41 boxes are planned, 30 are already in place, half of which are already in use. "Our customers include small and medium-sized companies as well as private individuals who have too few places to store things in their homes. But we also receive enquiries from people who are downsizing their living space or breaking up their household after a divorce and need temporary storage for furniture," says Rotpuller.

The "Freundeskreis" has no personnel costs, as the four of them handle everything themselves. While Rotpuller takes care of logistics and organization, Hergovich and Porics are in charge of marketing, customer acquisition and finances: "Our good soul is Erika. She takes care of customer service and ensures that all requests are processed quickly."