Working for decades for building land – or just one month: Anyone who wants to buy a 500 square meter building plot in Kitzbühel has to pay on average the gross salary of 29 years and one month. In Jennersdorf, this building plot is paid off following just 4 months and in Nikitsch, also in Burgenland, in around one month, according to the conclusion of the current OGM purchasing power study. Regional income differences have already been taken into account.
An average price of 2,527 euros was paid for one square meter of building land in Kitzbühel between 2019 and 2023. In Jennersdorf in southern Burgenland, however, the building land costs 27 euros and in Nikitsch 10.2 euros.
However, there are a number of outliers in Austria: the communities surrounding Kitzbühel such as Kirchberg, Aurach, Reith and Oberndorf are also expensive places to live. Building land in and around Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck as well as in Dornbirn is also comparatively expensive. But tourism hotspots such as Seefeld or Lech are not exactly cheap for home builders either.
Cheaper prices in the Mühlviertel
Anyone looking for affordable building land in Upper Austria will find it in the Mühlviertel: In the municipalities of Atzesberg, Kollerschlag, Neustift im Mühlkreis, Julbach and Nebelberg, prices are the most affordable at 25 and 26 euros per square meter respectively. Here, residents only have to spend four months’ income for 500 square meters of building land in their municipality. The average gross annual income here in 2022 was between 41,000 and 43,500 euros.
In general, however, building land tends to be more expensive in the west than in the east of the country. In Innsbruck, building land costs 1,622 euros per square metre, in Salzburg 1,392, while in Vienna it was available for as little as 1,018 euros.
When calculating how many gross salaries (as of 2022) have to be spent on the building site, regional income differences were also taken into account. However, these are significantly lower than the costs for the building site: year-round employees in Kitzbühel earned an average of EUR 43,451 gross in 2022, while in Jennersdorf it was EUR 41,898 gross. And in Nikitsch the average gross annual income was EUR 48,159.
Demand on politics
“Building land is a rare commodity,” says Anton Holzapfel. The Upper Austrian is the managing director of the Association of the Real Estate Industry. Due to the real estate crisis, prices were expected to fall, but that has not happened: “Demand is still there, especially in the good areas,” says Holzapfel. In structurally weak areas, there are fewer jobs, and there are costs for commuting, for example. In contrast to the prices for building land, construction costs are leveling off, says Holzapfel.
Kitzbühel is an exception, says Holzapfel, but in many district capitals – such as Salzburg – prices are becoming increasingly difficult for locals to afford. He believes it is up to politicians to act: they must try to revitalize town centers, keep existing buildings and attract businesses.
Holzapfel also criticizes the abolition of the earmarked use of housing subsidies: they must be used in a more targeted manner and must no longer “disappear into the states’ budget pots.” In Upper Austria, almost 822 million euros of the subsidies were not invested in housing in 2022.
