Many people aspire to own a home in Austria, but the reality of achieving this varies considerably depending on location and income.
A recent study by OGM has shed light on the number of working hours required to purchase a property in different Austrian regions.
The differences between regions in Austria are enormous. A square metre of building land in the popular ski-resort location of Kitzbühel costs €2,527 (average 2019-2023), while in Jennersdorf in southern Burgenland, it is only a hundredth of that at €27.
READ ALSO: 'Leerstandsabgabe': Everything about Austria's vacancy tax explained
In contrast, the regional differences in income are much smaller: Year-round employees in Kitzbühel (place of residence) earned an average of €43,451 gross per year in 2022, compared to €41,898 in Jennersdorf. For a 500 square metre plot of land, you statistically have to work for 29 years and one month in Kitzbühel, compared to just four months in Jennersdorf.
How much do you have to work to buy a plot of land?
Here's how much you have to work in each state capital to buy a 500-square-metre plot of land—the study takes into account regional income differences.
- Innsbruck: 18,5 years
- Salzburg: 14,7 years
- Vienna: 10,6 years
- Bregenz: 9,9 years
- Linz: 5,7 years
- Graz: 4,4 years
- Eisenstadt: 2,9 years
- St. Pölten: 1,9 year
- Klagenfurt: 1,9 year
In general, building plots tend to be more expensive in the west than in the east of the country. In Innsbruck, building plots cost €1,622 per square metre, in Salzburg €1,392, while in Vienna, they were available for as little as €1,018.
Sites close to the border in Burgenland and the Waldviertel are particularly cheaper, and if the transport links are poor, prices fall.
READ NEXT: EXPLAINED: Why people have stopped buying property in Austria
Comments