Page 7 - U4SSC Case study: Affordable housing and social inclusion, June 2020

Case Study 1 – City of Vienna: House sharing in urban areas as a tool for
social inclusion

Author:

Eva Schlotter

Introduction

Background

Residential property prices in Austria rose by 4.7 per cent year on year in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Price growth for the year as a whole was 3.8 per cent. Property prices in Austria have risen by an average
of 39 per cent since 2010, according to the ImmoDEX real estate report. New homes are the most
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expensive in the capital of Austria, Vienna, where a 123 m apartment or house costs around EUR 471
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000 – an increase of 22 per cent since 2010. Rental prices for new properties have risen steeply, by 21
per cent, with average costs now EUR 11.50 per square metre. In Vienna, council-owned properties,
where rents tend to be cheaper and only rise according to inflation, are in high demand. Wiener
Wohnen, the municipal department that manages the public buildings in Vienna, says it currently has
13 100 people on its waiting list, that is people who have registered their interest in renting a council
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flat. The fact that property prices are increasing should be cause for alarm. According to a recent
study, the total population of Vienna will increase by 289 000 (+15.5%) during the period 2018–2048.
The corresponding number of residents with a primary residence in the city will amount to 2 178 000
on 1 January 2018.
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Since 2007, the number of residents of Vienna has grown by twelve per cent, from 1 661 246 to
1 867 582 in 2016. The population is expected to increase by over 2 million by 2029. More than one
third of all new migrants who come to Austria from abroad each year move to Vienna. Most of them
come from other European countries. 4

Challenge and response

The city is about to face a housing shortage that will impact young people and students in particular.
The demand for affordable one- or two-bedroom apartments is high. WGE! is a social start-up that is
supported by the City of Vienna. It uses existing housing to provide affordable housing options for young
people. It connects students with elderly people who have a spare room or even a small apartment

1 ImmoDEX report available at: https:// www .immobilienscout24 .at/ unternehmen/ presse/ presseaussendungen/ 2017/ 27 -02 -2017
-immodex .html
2 Wiener Wohnen at https:// www .wienerwohnen .at/
3 Population Projection Vienna 2018, City of Vienna: https:// www .wien .gv .at/ statistik/ pdf/ pop -proj -2018 -sum .pdf
4 Facts and figures on Migration 2017 - Viennese population (official statistics of the City of Vienna): https:// www .wien .gv .at/ english/ social/
integration/ facts -figures/ population -migration .html

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