University research shows: – 3,900 additional apartments are needed in Tyrol every year

Georg Dornauer (SPÖ) invited people to his penultimate press conference on Tuesday as first deputy of the state governor. As reported, he will resign from his position on Wednesday following the Benko hunting scandal. A balance sheet press conference is scheduled for 12 noon.

On Tuesday, Dornauer presented the Tyrol Housing Needs Study 2024-2033 together with Christian Obermayr from the University of Innsbruck. A team of several people from the university worked on it for a year. Costs: 77,000 euros.

More than 100 pages of data and facts
The central questions examined: Which challenges and social trends influence the housing sector in Tyrol? What is the current and future housing need in the neighborhoods? And how many apartments will have to be built in the coming years to meet demand? The study contains more than 100 pages and is also accessible online to those interested on the university or state homepage.

100,000 apartments do not have a primary residence
The main results: There are currently approximately 440,000 housing units in Tyrol. What is particularly striking: “Almost 100,000 apartments are not registered as a principal residence, which corresponds to about 22.6 percent of all apartments. Of these 100,000 apartments, only about 24,000 have at least one second residence registration,” Obermayr calculates.

According to the expert, possible reasons for the approximately 76,000 apartments without any notification are that “they are polluted locations that are in the register, they are holiday homes or holiday apartments, they are empty, the apartment serves as a relocation reserve, it is an investment , it is planned for later personal use or is occupied but not reported”.

The research also shows that around 35,000 additional apartments will be needed by 2033 to meet housing needs. So there are almost 3,900 apartments per year. “Considering that approximately 7,000 apartments have been built annually in recent years, this number has very surprised me,” admits Dornauer.

The research also provides five recommendations for action
The departing LHStv., which does not believe in a mandatory primary residence, emphasizes the importance of five action recommendations defined in the study:

• Mobilize construction land: Spatial planning instruments such as contractual spatial planning and densification should be used more to efficiently mobilize construction land.
• Activate vacancies: A national vacancy database is intended to identify unused housing. “Financing measures can help make vacant or uninhabitable apartments livable again.”
• Housing needs planning: To better cover the needs of different population groups, a common definition and regional registration of housing needs, as well as coordinated allocation, are crucial.
• Prioritizing affordable housing: Municipalities must set targets for affordable housing and monitor the affordability of new buildings. Greater use should be made of spatial planning instruments to secure affordable housing.
• New types of housing: An important step for the future is to promote innovative housing typologies. For example, multi-generational living or inclusive living.

“Study is not worth more than the paper it is written on”
According to Dornauer, the state government is working to gather and mobilize vacancies. “And with housing subsidies, Tyroleans receive targeted support.”

There was already a flood of criticism during the presentation. Zeliha Arslan of the Greens said in a broadcast that “the results are an expensive farce. 77,000 euros of taxpayer money was burned to present results that have long been clear to everyone: Tyrol needs affordable housing. The research is not worth more than the paper it is written on.”