60 percent more citizens

No municipality in Austria grew more than this one!

An entire "urban district" was recently created on the fields near the largest transfer station in Lower Austria.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

The municipality of Michelhausen in Tullnerfeld (Lower Austria) grew by 60 percent between 2015 and 2025 - more than any other place in Austria. Why this is the case and why this record is not all good news ...

Lower Austria is not only the largest red-white-red federal state. The population is also growing more and more. Over the past ten years, according to Statistics Austria, it has grown by more than 90,000 people. However, no other municipality between Lake Neusiedl and Lake Constance has grown as much as the tranquil Michelhausen in the Tullnerfeld. This is partly due to the large railway station of the same name, and partly to the large-scale residential construction that proliferated on the former farmland after the opening of the transportation hub. This led to a population increase of 60 percent in ten years.

Large-scale residential construction - but many apartments are still vacant on the site.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

"That's too much," says Mayor Bernhard Heinl. Since taking over from his predecessor Rudolf Friewald in 2021, he has been putting the brakes on. In recent years, growth has leveled off at a moderate increase of around three percent. "And that's a good thing," says the head of the village. Because the rapid increase in population figures has pushed the small municipality to its limits. Heinl: "The slowdown in growth is necessary if only to ensure that the municipality's infrastructure - such as the kindergartens, schools, leisure facilities, local recreation and meeting areas and the canal system - keeps pace with the population situation."

The strong influx in the past is primarily due to the attractiveness of Michelhausen as a location thanks to the Tullnerfeld train station.

Bernhard Heinl, ÖVP-Bürgermeister von Michelhausen

Bild: Heinl

"Slow growth" is the goal
The significantly reduced growth rates of the past two years show that the path taken since 2021 is working. "We will also consistently maintain this course. The ordered no to further large-scale residential construction remains in place. Targeted and binding settlement limits in the zoning regulations are absolutely valid for future development," said the head of the municipality.

He wants to take a "gentle and intelligent" approach to further development, as he says in the "Krone" interview. For predominantly young people looking for living space in the record-breaking municipality, gaps between buildings are to be closed in future and areas that have already been designated are to be used.