Most Austrians still dream of a nice family home in the countryside. The first step towards realisation is the purchase of a home. Whether you have a chance of buying a suitable piece of land often depends on where you are going to live.
Anyone who wants to buy a building plot of 500 square meters in Kitzbühel has to pay an average gross salary of 29 years and one month. In Jennersdorf, this building plot is paid off after just four months and in Nikitsch, also in Burgenland, within about a month, according to the current purchasing power study by OGM. Regional income differences are already taken into account.
Between 2019 and 2023, an average price of 2,527 euros was paid for a square meter of building land in Kitzbühel. In Jennersdorf in the south of Burgenland, however, the building land costs 27 euros and in Nikitsch 10.2 euros.
Outliers up and down
There are however a few outliers in Austria: also the municipalities around Kitzbühel such as Kirchberg, Aurach, Reith and Oberndorf are expensive places. Building land in and around Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck and in Dornbirn are also relatively expensive. But tourist hotspots such as Seefeld or Lech are also not exactly cheap for house builders.
In general, however, building plots are more expensive in the west than in the east of the country. In Innsbruck, building land costs 1,622 euros per square meter, in Salzburg 1,392 euros, while in Vienna it was already available for 1,018 euros. Areas close to the border in Burgenland and the Waldviertel are particularly cheap. If transport connections are poor, prices drop.
When calculating how much gross wages (from 2022) have to be spent on the construction site, regional income differences have also been taken into account. However, these are significantly lower than the costs for the construction site: in 2022, year-round employees in Kitzbühel earned an average of 43,451 euros gross, in Jennersdorf it was 41,898 euros gross. And in Nikitsch, the average gross annual income was 48,159 euros.
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.
