City of Salzburg

Strategies sought to combat vacant apartments

(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

The new Salzburg city government has set itself the goal of developing measures to combat the vacancy rate. However, there are already blind spots when it comes to the number of presumed vacant apartments in the city. Kay-Michael Dankl (KPÖ Plus), the deputy mayor responsible for the issue, therefore presented two studies on the extent of unused or underused apartments on Tuesday.

The city is working with the registration data and the housing register to impose the vacancy tax. The problem: in large multi-storey residential buildings with dozens of parties, the top or door number is often missing from the registration data. "If no occupant can therefore be assigned to an apartment, the apartment is considered vacant," says Dankl. And this applies to around 24,000 addresses - which corresponds to well over a quarter of all apartments in the city. A strategy therefore needs to be developed to clarify this.

However, two studies currently provide a differentiated picture of the status quo regarding vacancies in the provincial capital. A study carried out by the Salzburg Institute for Spatial Planning and Housing (SIR) in 2022 measured the vacancy rate based on electricity consumption. It recorded the number of apartments that consume less than 200 kWh of electricity per year - which ultimately amounted to 3,100 units.

"But you have to differentiate," explained study author Inge Strassl. "This also includes apartments that cannot be mobilized immediately because they require extensive refurbishment." At the same time, however, new builds may have fallen through the cracks because they are equipped with alarm systems, automatic sun protection and lighting control systems that are well above the consumption threshold.

The SIR study therefore estimates the number of apartments that can be mobilized at around 2,500. At the same time, the study comes to the conclusion that larger long-term vacancies exist primarily in older condominiums from the 1960s to 1980s and in areas with many detached and semi-detached houses, but hardly in subsidized rental housing.

The second study conducted by the University of Salzburg focused on data from the registration and building register and only looked at new residential buildings from 2000 to 2021. Vacancies and secondary residences were surveyed together ("underutilization"), and only for properties with more than 30 residential units. The result: around 8.7 percent of the 7,300 units had no registered residence or were only registered as secondary residences. What is striking is that the figures vary depending on the type of property developer and the focus on ownership. In the case of projects by non-profit developers with predominantly rental apartments, the proportion of under-occupied apartments is significantly lower than the average, while in the case of commercial condominiums it is clearly higher.

Dankl concludes from the studies that every tenth apartment in Salzburg is probably not used as a main residence. However, he announced the start of a nationwide survey for the coming year. In Salzburg, the building authorities have so far only examined 200 suspected cases, and a vacancy tax has only been imposed in 35 cases.

"The under-utilization of living space is no longer a trivial offence," said Dankl. He called on the state government to revise the numerous exceptions to the Secondary Residence and Vacancy Levy Act (ZWAG), which has been in force since the beginning of 2023, and - as permitted by the federal government - to significantly increase the amount of the possible vacancy levy. "The law is like Swiss cheese. There is always an exception somewhere," criticized Dankl. At the same time, there is not only a need for leverage, but also incentives. "Many homeowners have reservations. There are a lot of myths going around. For example, that I have to take the next best tenant." This can be countered with targeted information.