Large-scale social housing construction in Vienna is the result of a century of sustained policy. The city council started this social housing construction just after World War I in 1919 when the Social Democratic Workers' Party came to power in Austria. In the early 1920s, the Vienna city council approved the first housing programme. This provided for the construction of 25,000 houses over a five-year period.
Until 1934 - this period is known as “Red Vienna” - more than 60,000 houses were completed (2). That a century later just under half of Vienna's total housing stock is still social housing is partly due to political stability. With the exception of the Nazi regime, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) has ruled in Vienna for 100 years. The SPO currently governs Vienna together with the liberal Das Neue Osterreich (NEOS).
Even in the 1960s when there was little reason to do so because of the low population growth, the city government bought massive amounts of land on which to build social housing. In the interview we had with him, Kurt Hofstetter, who works at the city of Vienna's Housing Grants Department, indicates that despite some adjustments, ‘the spirit of Red Vienna is still quite strong and stable in city policy’.
What can Flanders learn from Vienna's social housing policy?
Vienna can present exceptional results in affordable housing worldwide. 60 per cent of residents live in affordable social housing built by Vienna itself or with its subsidies. Only 18 per cent of Wieners here spend more than 40 per cent of their income on housing costs compared to 62 per cent in London, 50 per cent in Berlin ... This is not only due to the huge numbers (more than 420,000) of affordable housing entities, but also to rent subsidies, legal restrictions on rental rates in the private sector, land policies pursued, separate shelters for the homeless and newcomers ...
Incidentally, this large-scale social housing policy also had a price-lowering effect on rental rates in the 33 per cent of housing units rented privately, although these rose faster than rates in municipal or subsidised affordable housing in recent years. A price lowering trend was also observed for the selling prices of the homes. Financial news agency Bloomberg described Vienna as ‘the epicentre of Europe's housing misery’ in 2024. Sales prices fell 12 per cent in 2023 Vienna, more than twice as fast as Stockholm. Rising interest rates combined with an ample supply of affordable rental housing caused the demand for owner-occupied houses to collapse. What can Flanders learn from Vienna?
Photo: © Herzi Pinki via Wikimedia Commons
