The real estate market in Austria contracted significantly in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In 2015, so few real estate sales were last registered in the land register. More than a fifth fewer properties changed hands.
The value of the transactions even fell by almost a quarter to 16.6 billion euros, according to the Remax real estate index for the first half of the year. The semi-detached houses and terraced houses, which are popular with families, are in particular declining sharply.
Properties with prices between 400,000 and one million euros are being hit hard by the declining demand, says Anton Nenning of Remax. Semi-detached and terraced houses would be considered particularly dependent on financing and would have suffered the largest losses, falling by a third.
There is much more demand for buildings on lakes
Demand for single-family homes and villas has fallen by only 16 to 17 percent. There is even much more demand for buildings on the lake than last year; forest areas, vineyards, lakeside properties or allotments are “not impressed at all” by the developments.
Minus in all states
All federal states recorded a negative, in Vienna and Lower Austria this was the strongest with more than 3000 each in absolute figures, but Salzburg and Vorarlberg were proportionally hardest hit with decreases of more than 30 percent each. Most properties in Lower Austria have changed hands (nearly 12,000), while Styria has displaced Vienna from second place (about 9,300 each). Burgenland lost last place to Vorarlberg.
The value of the cadastral registrations fell by more than five billion euros to 16.6 billion euros. Vienna was responsible for almost half of the decline. However, the previous year brought an absolute record number of transactions. Young couples and young families would suffer the most from the tighter credit conditions.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
