Austria’s property market appears to be shifting again, with experts expecting prices to rise moderately in 2026 and the number of transactions to increase from last year’s low level, according to Die Presse.
Recent years have been difficult for buyers. Prices climbed sharply when interest rates were low. Then interest rates rose and lending rules tightened, making fewer people able to afford to buy.
That pushed more people into renting, increasing demand for rental flats. Die Presse reported that this trend has slowed in recent months. Buying is still challenging, but financing has become easier.
At the end of 2025, there were 150,568 properties listed for sale. That was slightly more than at the end of 2024.
What do experts expect in 2026?
Experts surveyed by Remax, Austria's largest real estate agency, expect both demand and supply to rise across all major property types. Remax links this to the current interest-rate level, a still solid supply, and rising demand.
“The current interest rate level, the still good supply and rising demand allow us to look ahead to 2026 with optimism,” Bernhard Reikersdorfer, managing director of Remax Austria, told Die Presse.
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Will new-build shortages push prices higher?
Reikersdorfer said the biggest concern is the new-build market, both for renting and buying. He warned that too little new construction is being built.
“However, we do see challenges in the new-build sector – both in terms of renting and buying. Far too little new construction has been or is being built,” he said.
He added this could have consequences in the next few years, as demand grows while supply tightens.
“This will lead to more demand meeting less supply in the foreseeable future, with the result that prices will rise noticeably by 2027/28 at the latest,” he told Die Presse.
Reikersdorfer also said politicians should “create appropriate incentives very soon” to spur new construction and bring more housing to market.
Are property prices already rising again?
Residential property prices rose by 1.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025, based on National Bank data cited in the report.
Remax experts see this as a sign that the period of falling prices is over. After peaking during the coronavirus pandemic, prices declined. The survey suggested that the downtrend has now ended.
For 2026, experts expected moderate price rises for houses and flats. They expected these increases to broadly track inflation.
The survey also suggested different dynamics depending on price level. Demand and supply are rising most strongly in the upper price bracket. But prices are rising most strongly in the lower price range.
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What does it mean for renters?
The report described rental pressure as a continuing issue, especially since the supply of rental flats has fallen sharply since mid-2022.
For rental flats with freely set rents, location is most important. City centres are preferred over the outskirts and rural municipalities – and prices reflect that. Remax expected rents to rise slightly more than purchase prices.
Daniel Lobnik, a Remax manager in Klagenfurt, said affordable rental listings are becoming scarcer, while demand for renting continues to rise.
“Affordable rental offers are becoming fewer, but demand for renting is higher. Flats with outdoor space are wanted, but are barely available. Small flats are especially in demand,” Lobnik told Die Presse.
The report also referred to an announced easing of the so-called KIM rules, Austria’s lending guidelines that made it harder to get a mortgage in recent years.
Lobnik said the easing did not bring the clear improvements he expected. At the same time, the report said investors have become more active again. This contributed to rental supply rising year-on-year again after a longer period of decline.
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Which provinces are more optimistic?
Expectations for 2026 vary across Austria. Tyrol’s experts were the most positive on demand development, followed by Carinthia and Lower Austria.
Upper Austria, Burgenland and Vienna were far less upbeat, Die Presse reported.
In Salzburg, the report said price increases are emerging across all property segments.
Are sales picking up again?
Remax said the market recovered slightly in 2025, based on land register figures compared with 2024.
It estimated around 117,000 property registrations for 2025. That would be about 16 percent more than the year before.
However, this would still be far below the record year of 2021, when there were 163,266 registrations. In 2024, the report said there were 100,854.
The agency said it supported an average of 44 transactions per working day. It put the value of transactions handled in 2025 at €2.76 billion, almost a quarter higher than in 2024.
Remax attributed this mainly to lower interest rates and temporary fee exemptions for most land register entries.
READ ALSO: No relief for homebuyers in Austria as banks continue with strict lending rules
Key vocabulary
die Immobilie – property, real estate
die Eigentumswohnung – condominium (owner-occupied flat)
die Nachfrage – demand
das Angebot – supply
die Miete – rent (the rental arrangement)
das Grundbuch – land register (property register)
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