Affordable building land

Steiner proposal meets with no approval

Politicians want to make affordable housing possible.

(Bild: Mario Hösel)

The ÖVP's idea has little appeal in the state. The building land mobilization levy, on the other hand, is the right way to go, they say.

As reported, ÖVP member of parliament Thomas Steiner has brought a "rezoning guarantee" into play in order to create affordable living space for young families. However, the office of the responsible provincial councillor Heinrich Dorner (SPÖ) considers the proposal to be far too short-sighted. It ignores the rural structure of Burgenland with its many small communities and at best reflects the urban perspective.

"Strange proposal"
Being able to reclassify grassland and, in particular, agricultural land as building land without any oversight is a "strange proposal". "In addition, Steiner's plan would throw all the rules of spatial planning overboard, for example with regard to landscape protection or nature conservation," it explains. Only recently, the ÖVP-affiliated association of municipalities had adopted a municipal land protection plan, which also called for the introduction of a building land mobilization levy. There was only one dissenting vote - that of Steiner.

"Absolutely right"
"In reality, we have been confirmed that our initiative for affordable building land is absolutely right. We want to mobilize unused building land so that young families can get affordable properties and don't have to move away from their home community," Dorner's office continued. The building land mobilization levy contains numerous socially responsible exceptions.

Already 240 building land mobilization agreements 
The most effective is when a building land mobilization agreement is signed. The municipality then has access to building land reserves and can make them available to people willing to build. "The 240 or so building land mobilization agreements that have now been concluded show that our programme is fully effective here," it is emphasized.