1.5 percent fixed interest rate

155 house builders received €5 million in funding

Up and down the country, construction companies are complaining that the private sector has almost come to a standstill.

(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger © Daniel Scharinger)

In times of high interest rates, this state subsidy came at just the right time for many house builders: since July 1, the state has been supporting building families with a fixed-interest loan of €100,000 (1.5 percent over 20 years). Manfred Haimbuchner, Deputy Provincial Housing Minister, has now explained how much funding has been approved so far. 

High construction costs, worried about the future - and extremely high costs for financing their own projects: construction companies up and down the country are complaining that the private sector is almost at a standstill. The funding package presented at the end of May by Housing Minister Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) was able to counteract this somewhat.

State contributes 4.8 million euros
As of Monday, July 22nd, the state has guaranteed subsidies for 155 private construction projects with a fixed rate of 1.5 percent. Haimbuchner confirms that the Upper Austrian state government will subsidize loans amounting to EUR 13,907,750.00 with a total of EUR 4,823,327.64. 

The Vice Governor says: "Every euro invested here by the state is a gain for Upper Austria, our fellow countrymen and our construction industry. I am very pleased that the new home ownership subsidy has been so well received by our population."

Deputy Provincial Governor and Housing Minister Manfred Haimbuchner took stock of the housing subsidies.

(Bild: Dostal Harald/© Harald Dostal / 2024)

In general, the department also took stock of the first half of the year on Friday. "From the point of view of housing subsidies, the first half of the year was labor-intensive, but nevertheless quite successful. We can look back on a very good six months, particularly in the area of refurbishment," said Haimbuchner. 2023 was a record year. However, it is questionable whether this year will be able to match it. 

Multi-storey residential construction: increase of 60 percent
Specifically, 1243 renovation subsidies were approved for owner-occupied homes by the end of June, compared to just under 200 more in the same period last year. However, the situation is completely different for multi-storey residential buildings. In the first half of 2024, the total number of approvals reached the previous year's level, with 2143 projects approved. In 2023, the total was 2619, an increase of more than 60 percent. 

Sharp criticism of the work of the federal government
In this context, Deputy Governor Haimbuchner also criticized the work of the federal government: "Unfortunately, the federal government's housing and construction package has tied up a lot of resources and kept our employees away from other, more targeted tasks. Now that resources have been freed up again, things are looking up as usual and we will do our best to build on past successes. The prerequisite for this, however, is that we will hopefully be able to work in the future without calls from the federal government, which is neither responsible nor technically competent," says the FPÖ politician