In order to create more affordable housing and prevent real estate speculations, Vienna has revised the building regulations and introduced the new “subsidised housing” zoning category.
Since 1 January 2019, the City of Vienna is able to use this zoning category to reclassify areas of grassland or commercial spaces. As a result, there are much stricter requirements for landowners than before. Two thirds of the spaces allocated to “subsidised housing” zone must be used to build subsidised apartments. The two-thirds rule will now apply to all re-zoning of living areas that are 5000 square meters or more, i.e. land where the construction of 50 homes or more would be possible. This rule also applies to zoning expansions - when existing buildings are extended or added to. This means high-rise buildings are also affected by this requirement.
For building contractors, the usual thresholds stipulated for Vienna’s subsidised housing of €5 in net rent per square meter of living space and €188 per square meter of above-ground gross floor space applies to the recoverable property price. This latter threshold in particular means it makes little sense to sell such a property for anything higher than €188. That will put a stop to real estate speculations.
This new zoning category also involves a ban on selling - recorded in the land register - of any subsidised apartments built on these areas. That means that the City of Vienna has to give its consent for these subsidised apartments. This sales prohibition extends over the entire term of grant.
The new category primarily applies to the re-zoning of grassland to building land and to commercial sites whose owners are interested in re-zoning for residential use. This new law is an important measure for further increasing the quota of subsidised housing in Vienna, which is the primary housing objective of Vienna’s urban policy.