Greens and ÖVP agree – reform is coming: the customer pays agency fees

Until now, tenants always had to pay agency fees – up to two gross monthly rents – even if the landlord had engaged a real estate agent. Zadic and Plakolm announced in a joint press release that the government bill to amend the real estate law will be adopted in the Council of Ministers next Wednesday. In the future, only those who commission a broker will also have to pay for it. For tenants, this means a total of more than 55 million euros per year in savings when concluding contracts.

Backdoor commission protection
“We are ending an injustice that has been going on for decades. As everywhere, the same applies to renting: whoever orders also pays. This relieves anyone looking for an apartment who would have paid high brokerage commissions in the past,” said Zadic, who had already presented the first design in 2021. Plakolm was now also “glad that we have come to an agreement here”. For young people, the transition to the ordering principle is a nice step. You save almost a third of the start-up costs for your own apartment.

The agreement comes as a surprise, as it looked different until recently: Zadic and Plakolm had presented an agreement in March 2022. But then – as the Greens complained at the end of November – the ÖVP opposed the provision to prevent the abolished conciliation commission from being reintroduced through the back door. According to the information provided, the current draft law provides “comprehensive and strict protection against circumvention”.

The new law should enter into force on July 1, 2023
Of course nothing can come of the originally intended entry into force on 1 January 2023, the amendment to the law still has to be adopted by parliament. But now, according to the joint broadcast, there are no longer any obstacles to its entry into force on July 1, 2023.