Apartment data

Innsbruck is already years ahead of Salzburg

There is already good data on the residential sector in the Tyrolean capital.

(Bild: Birbaumer Johanna)

Salzburg politicians see the Tyrolean capital as a role model when it comes to housing data and vacancy rates. Innsbruck already started to clean up the data in 2019 in order to get an accurate picture of the situation.

In 2019, the Tyrolean capital created a separate department to determine how many apartments are vacant in Innsbruck. However, this is not just about vacancies, but rather about completing and correcting the building and housing register (GWR) - in conjunction with the residents' register. In cases of clarification, the case is looked at directly on site. Buildings that have already been corrected are checked every six months to ensure that the data is kept up to date. This is not the case in Salzburg.

"At the beginning, we chose large buildings because it was easier there and we could make corrections quickly," explains Manfred Hirsch from the Innsbruck Department for Building and Housing Registers. The starting shot was fired in the Olympic village. Currently, 57 percent of the city area has already been recorded.

A good GWR is the key, as are digital plans, which make the work much faster and easier. If Salzburg wants to follow a similar path to Innsbruck, three to four people in the department should be enough to achieve a lot at the beginning. In Innsbruck, three people are now only working on the clean-up. Hirsch is convinced that the data is already of a high quality. "We also know, for example, whether there is over- or under-occupancy or whether an 80-year-old is living in a 100-square-metre apartment," says the Tyrolean, who is also happy to pass on his knowledge. "The more exchange there is, the easier it is to implement measures," says Hirsch. Vienna and Graz have already seen for themselves and started to implement similar models.

In Salzburg, city councillor Kay-Michael Dankl assumes that there are 24,000 unresolved cases. The data is likely to be very blurred, especially for buildings from the 60s and 70s with a lot of property. Dankl is also already thinking of hiring staff who could take care of this.