Development is at a standstill
However, they find themselves caught in a double situation: on the one hand, construction costs are increasing more and more; on the other, they have difficulty selling the apartments they have already built. This leads to a clear reluctance to take on new projects. “If no new apartments are built, it becomes difficult to imagine that additional households will find space in Vienna,” explains Matthias Grosse, one of the authors of the report. Another stumbling block is strict regulations. Regulations such as parking space requirements or streetscape protection make renovations and expansions extremely difficult, especially in inner districts. “The urban landscape stops, but so does development,” criticizes Ulreich. As a result, construction activity is increasingly focused on peripheral districts.