In Vienna, almost half of all homes are social housing

In Vienna, there is a good chance the flat next door is social housing. 42% of the city’s homes are, according to 2023 Statistik Austria data cited in the Climate and Community Institute report Green Social Housing: Lessons from Vienna. Half are owned by the city (21%) and half by non-profit associations (another 21%). That is some 400,000 homes, where most of the city’s renters live.

The caveat: the model has its critics in Vienna itself. There are complaints about waiting lists, and the charity Volkshilfe warns that social housing has lost ground to private developers in new construction.

A century of building

The city began building municipal housing in the 1920s. The best-known example is Karl-Marx-Hof, built between 1927 and 1930: a single block 1,100 metres long with 1,382 flats, designed by architect Karl Ehn. Vienna kept building after that, and still does in new districts such as Sonnwendviertel, next to the central station.

About two euros less per square metre

Having so much social housing keeps a lid on prices. According to the Austrian Federation of Limited Profit Housing Associations (GBV), with 2022 data cited in the report, renting one of its flats costs on average 23% less than a private rental: about €8 per square metre against about €10. For new buildings, the gap is 27%.

What worries the city

“We used to have two thirds of all apartments built by social housing, ten or fifteen years ago. Now it is the other way around,” Martin Orner, head of housing policy at Volkshilfe, told Euronews in 2024. The result, he said, is higher housing prices. His answer: more land and more chances to build social housing.

Why it’s good news

Vienna shows that a big city can keep rents affordable for generations if it invests steadily in public housing. It is the first stop in our 11 November housing special, with five examples that work.