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From 2022 to 2023, the increase was still 7.4 percent. This affected 1.79 million main rental apartments in Austria, a quarter of which were temporary, with an average rental period of 11.4 years. In 2024, a main rental apartment, including operating costs, cost an average of EUR 653.60, which corresponds to EUR 9.8 per square meter, according to Statistics Austria.
Excluding operating costs, 492.5 euros per apartment or 7.4 euros per square meter had to be paid. The previous year’s operating costs amounted to 163.7 euros per apartment or 2.5 euros per square meter. New tenancies (agreements with less than two years) had an average rent of EUR 11.8 per square meter, including operating costs. Old leases that have been in place for 30 years or longer cost 6.3 euros per square meter.
Rent, including operating costs at 12.80 euros/square meter
On average, the rent, including operating costs for fixed-term main rental apartments, was 12.8 euros per square meter, while unlimited main rental apartments had a price per square meter of 8.8 euros. In the case of private main rental contracts, the proportion of fixed-term rental contracts amounted to 49.5 percent (400,400 apartments), Statistics Austria explained in a press release.
Year-on-year, residential rents rose by 4.2% in the 4th quarter of 2024. Compared to the previous quarter, the average monthly rent in the last three months of the prior year, including operating costs, remained unchanged at EUR 9.9 per square meter. The average rent, excluding operating costs, rose 5.6% year-on-year to EUR 7.5 per square meter in Q4 2024.
The average rent, including operating costs, was EUR 662.9 per apartment in the last quarter of the year. The rent, excluding operating costs, was EUR 502.1 per main rental apartment or EUR 7.5 per square meter in the fourth quarter of 2024. Thus, the net rent per square meter rose by 5.6% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Operating costs averaged 164.0 euros per apartment. Operating costs per square meter amounted to 2.5 euros in the final quarter.
Austria leads the way in rent increases
On Tuesday, the trade union-affiliated Momentum Institute calculated that rents in Austria had risen three times faster than in the eurozone in 2024. “Austria ranks fourth among those countries in which rents have risen the most on average since 2010,” the institute cited data from the European Statistical Authority. Only Estonia, Lithuania, and Ireland have rents that have risen more than Austria. “While they rose by 70.3 percent in Austria, rents were only increased by 23.5 percent on average in the eurozone,” according to the criticism. To put this into perspective, general inflation in Austria is currently (February value) at 3.3 percent, in the eurozone at 2.4 percent.
Leonard Jüngling, housing and inflation expert at the Momentum Institute, pointed out on Tuesday that the rent freeze decided by the government for this year only applies to regulated tenancies but not to privately financed housing. “This is precisely where the average rent is highest,” said the expert. Of the total of 1.7 million rental households, a quarter continues to be exposed to unchecked rent increases.
- source: oe24.at/picture: Image by mastersenaiper from Pixabay
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