An area the size of Paris, surrounded by mountains, 37,304 students, citizens with an average age of 42 years and almost 49 percent single-person households: that is Innsbruck in numbers. The figures when it comes to house prices are terrible: the cost of a condominium has literally exploded in ten years, as can be read in a new brochure.
The city’s statistics office has regrouped the most important points of the Alpine city, it was said at the presentation on Tuesday. For Mayor Johannes Anzengruber (YES – Now Innsbruck), the figures also meant “financial challenges”.
“Great place to work” but…
“Innsbruck is a great place to work,” says Anzengruber. About a quarter of all Tyrolean jobs are performed in the capital, including many in the public sector, such as government or hospitals. However, the work in these public institutions “has no direct impact on local taxes”, the city boss pointed to a financial shortcoming.
As a city, we “expect that the state will take this seriously,” Anzengruber said, referring to the state of Tyrol’s distribution of needs to communities. We should not only talk to surrounding communities here, he warned, while at the same time saying that it was “good things” that the city of Innsbruck would receive more money in the future.
Housing costs continue to rise
However, Innsbruck residents had to invest significantly more money in their own homes, according to studies by the statistics office. “We are experiencing a sharp increase in housing costs,” said office manager Mathias Behmann at the presentation of a new brochure. From 2013 to 2023, the price of a new condominium increased by an average of 107.6 percent to 8,188 euros per square meter.
Since 2003, tenants have had to spend 8.30 euros more per square meter, making the price per square meter 17.70 euros last year. One reason for the high house prices is probably the small habitable area: although Innsbruck is as large in area as the French capital Paris, only 21 percent is designated as residential area; the rest consists of forests and mountains.
“A relatively young city”
“The special thing about Innsbruck are the many students,” says Behmann about the population structure. Although all European cities – including Innsbruck – are aging, the Tyrolean capital with its five universities is “a relatively young city” because of its students.
Innsbruck also has a high level of education, with 27.7 percent of residents having completed university, compared to 7.3 percent in 1981. The share of those who completed compulsory education as the highest level of education has since almost halved to 23.7 percent (1981: 41.5 percent).
“Moderate growth”
According to Anzengruber, Austria’s fifth largest city has shown “moderate growth” in recent years, which the city is satisfied with. At the beginning of this year, 132,188 people lived there, an increase of 6.1 percent since 2014. The largest movements were registered during the refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016, and the outbreak of war in Ukraine was also clearly felt by the city.
However, the vast majority of people with non-Austrian citizenship come from Germany (10,462), followed by Italy (4,007) and Turkey (2,831). 68.6 percent of Innsbruck residents have Austrian citizenship, 17.1 percent are EU citizens and 14.3 percent are third-country nationals.
“Bronze medal” in tourism
In addition to the educational institutions, the capital of Tyrol is also strongly influenced by tourism. In the city tourism comparison, the city ranks third after Vienna and Salzburg due to the number of overnight stays, Anzengruber said, satisfied with the “bronze medal”. In the tourist year 2022/2023, 1.77 million overnight stays were counted for a total of 9,067 beds.
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.
