Vienna's housing shortage escalates: rents over 20 euros per square meter!

Vienna's housing shortage escalates: rents over 20 euros per square meter!

In the beautiful city of Vienna, the housing shortage will reach a dramatic peak in 2025. This is reflected not only in the reduced number of new residential construction projects, but also in the rising rental prices, which are now over 20 euros per square meter. These developments have been the focus of the media, particularly since the first evaluations of the Vienna housing market, which shed light on the uncertain political and economic conditions. Exchange Express reports that the completion of new apartments in Vienna in the first half of 2025 will only be 10,000. This is a decrease of a third compared to the previous year. Experts fear that the number of privately financed rental apartments could even fall by over 50 percent to just 4,700.

The situation is further complicated by sharply rising construction costs, which have risen by almost 50 percent since 2010. These enormous costs, combined with high interest rates and long approval processes, are causing many developers to refrain from building projects. Political actors are therefore calling for urgent reforms to improve access to community housing and establish dedicated housing deposit funds to ease residents' burdens. wien.gv.at highlights that rents in subsidized new buildings are fortunately well below market levels, with maximum values ​​set at 6.35 euros per square meter (plus operating costs) for 2025. For SMART apartments the cap value is even 4.76 euros.

Rent explosion for private individuals

However, rental prices for conventional apartments in Vienna are showing an increasing trend. The average rent is already 19.93 euros per square meter, which corresponds to an increase of 7.6 percent within a year. Analysts even report a 9 percent increase to an average of 20.42 euros. Immunity calculator explains that small apartments of up to 50 square meters in particular in districts such as Hernals or Ottakring already cost over 20 euros per square meter.

Young people in particular face an insurmountable challenge. For many people, the dream of owning their own apartment becomes an illusion. It can also be observed that developers are increasingly selling planned rental projects as condominiums, which is further exacerbating the situation on the rental housing market. The 60 square meter apartment now costs over 1,200 euros a month, which is unaffordable for many.

A look into the future

The future looks bleak due to high interest rates, bureaucracy and declining new construction activity. The Vienna Chamber of Commerce warns of a serious crisis and calls on politicians to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and take immediate measures to prevent the impending social division in the housing market. Forecasts suggest that Austria will record even fewer than 50,000 completions nationwide in 2026, which is a historic low. Exchange Express highlights that without clear measures, more than 60 percent of Viennese living in social housing could be affected by a gap between rich and poor.