If you're thinking of buying a flat in Austria, where you look can have a big impact on how much you pay.
A new analysis by Raiffeisen Immobilien compared average apartment purchase prices in Austria's nine state capitals during the first half of 2026.
According to the broker's figures, St Pölten is currently the cheapest state capital for buying an apartment, at an average of around €2,800 per square metre. At the other end of the ranking, Innsbruck comes in at €6,400 per square metre.
The figures combine new and used apartments, and they shouldn't be read as the price you will necessarily pay for a particular property.
The cheapest and most expensive state capitals
Here is the full ranking, from cheapest to most expensive:
- St Pölten - €2,800 per square metre
- Eisenstadt - €3,400
- Graz - €3,600
- Klagenfurt - €3,900
- Linz - €4,200
- Bregenz - €5,200
- Salzburg - €5,500
- Vienna - €5,500
- Innsbruck - €6,400
A theoretical 70-square-metre apartment bought at the citywide average would cost around €196,000 in St Pölten, compared with €385,000 in Vienna or Salzburg and €448,000 in Innsbruck.
Those don't include the additional costs of buying property in Austria, such as taxes, registration and potentially brokerage and financing costs.
READ ALSO: Why buying a home in Austria is getting harder again
How much cheaper are existing flats?
The headline averages also hide a large gap between new-build and existing properties.
In St Pölten, Raiffeisen puts used apartments at around €1,700 to €2,500 per square metre, depending on factors such as location, size and features. New apartments, meanwhile, are estimated at around €3,800 to €4,200.
In Linz, the average price for a new apartment is around €5,500 per square metre, compared with €3,800 for an existing one.
Klagenfurt's overall average is €3,900, but Raiffeisen puts new-build apartments at approximately €5,200 per square metre, while used properties can be found for just over €3,000.
Raiffeisen estimates new apartments in Salzburg at around €8,000 to €8,500 per square metre, compared with roughly €5,000 to €5,500 for used homes.
In Vienna, the respective figures are around €7,200 and €4,400.
In Bregenz, new apartments are estimated at around €7,500 per square metre, while used properties range from approximately €3,500 to €5,700.
And in Innsbruck, a new apartment in a good location is typically put at €7,000 to €9,000 per square metre, with top locations reaching as much as €12,000.
READ ALSO: What Austria’s shifting property market could mean for buyers and renters
Why are new apartments so much more expensive?
Raiffeisen attributes much of the difference to higher construction costs and a reduced supply of new developments.
As The Local reported in July, Statistics Austria found that residential construction costs were 5.4 percent higher in June 2026 than a year earlier.
Higher construction costs don't automatically push selling prices up by the same amount. Demand, land prices, financing conditions and local supply also play a role. But they can make new projects more expensive to build and widen the price gap between new and existing homes.
READ ALSO: What rising building costs mean for home buyers in Austria
How reliable is the ranking?
The figures come from Raiffeisen Immobilien, one of Austria's major property brokerage networks, and not from Statistics Austria.
Raiffeisen says its comparison is based on average apartment purchase prices between January and June 2026 and includes both new and existing properties.
Austria's official property statistics use a different method. Statistics Austria's latest average property-price data are based on purchases by private households and use transaction data from the target year and the previous four years, with older transactions adjusted to the latest year's price level.
For 2025, Statistics Austria put the nationwide median apartment price at €4,162 per square metre. Vienna was the most expensive province at €5,212, followed by Vorarlberg at €5,000, Salzburg at €4,968 and Tyrol at €4,965. Burgenland and Styria were also at the cheaper end of the official provincial data.
The two sets of figures can't be directly compared. They cover different periods, different geographical units and use different methods.
The condition and age of the property, the neighbourhood and whether you're buying new or used can easily move the price by thousands of euros per square metre.
International buyers should also check the legal rules before making an offer. As The Local has previously explained, Austria's property-purchase rules can differ according to nationality, province and the type of home being bought.
Key vocabulary
die Eigentumswohnung - condominium or privately owned flat
der Quadratmeterpreis - price per square metre
der Neubau - new-build property
der Bestand - existing housing stock
die Landeshauptstadt - state or provincial capital
Comments