Vienna, Most Livable City - Social Housing, Renters Pay 1/3 Cost in London, Paris, Dublin
- 'The social housing secret: how Vienna became the world’s most livable city,' The Guardian, Jan. 10, 2024. Ed. - In the Austrian capital, renters pay a third of what their counterparts do in London, Paris or Dublin. How is it possible? 🏢
The first place that Max Schranz moved into after leaving his family home is the kind that many young professionals dream of inhabiting at the peak of their career.
At only 26, he lives in a bright 5th-floor apartment with high ceilings overlooking a European capital city, 10 minutes from the central station and within walking distance of cinemas, theatres and bars. No lottery win or parental trust fund was needed to make that dream a reality: Schranz, who is a master’s student, pays €596 (£512) a month for his 54 sq metre 2-bedroom apt. - a fraction of typical rents for similarly sized and similarly located apartments in other major European cities.
He also didn’t have to put down a deposit and his rental contract is unlimited – in theory, he’s allowed to pass it on to his children or a sibling when he eventually decides to move on. “I’m aware it’s a pretty stress-free existence,” he says. “Friends in other European cities are a bit jealous.” Hello Vienna, the city that may have cracked the code of how to keep inner-city housing affordable. As other cities battle spiralling rental prices, partly fuelled by inner-city apts. being used as short-term holiday rentals or being kept strategically vacant by property speculators, the Austrian capital bucks the trend.
Last year Vienna retained its place as the world’s most livable city in the Economist’s annual index.
It's renters on average pay roughly a third of their counterparts in London, Paris or Dublin, according to a recent study by Deloitte. Part of the reason Schranz’s apartment is so affordable is simple: it’s owned by the city. In Vienna, that is (almost) the norm. The landlord of approximately 220,000 socially rented apartments, it is the largest home-owning city in Europe (London has more than 800,000 socially rented apartments owned by the local councils).
A quarter of the people who live in Vienna are social tenants – if you also include the approximately 200,000 co-operative dwellings built with municipal subsidies, it’s more than half the population. Many apts. were built a century ago, part of an enormous programme after World War I, when Vienna was filled with people uprooted by the Habsburg empire collapse. Funded primarily through a hypothecated tax on luxuries - champagne or horse-riding - the early phase of socialist-governed “Red Vienna” had 65,000 socially rented apts. by the time of the Nazi coup attempt in 1934.
.. Vienna’s social housing programme is more than a policy - in the city it is a foundational ideal that is a source of immense pride. But the reality doesn’t always live up to the ideal...
- More, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/10/the-social-housing-secret-how-vienna-became-the-worlds-most-livable-city
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