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Up to 50,000 properties left empty in Vienna as landlords unwilling to rent

The Austrian capital Vienna, which is around five times smaller than London, has as many as 50,000 empty apartments, which property owners are unwilling to rent because of high taxes, according to a report in The Local.

“Tens of thousands of private apartments in Austria are empty because their owners are not renting them out,” the FPÖ party’s housing councillor Manfred Haimbuchner said at a press conference in Linz.  

He wants the government to cut the amount of tax property owners have to pay on rental properties, claiming that it is putting prospective landlords off. However, property owners only pay 10% tax on rental profits in Austria.

Haimbuchner also said that strict tenancy laws mean that landlords with problem tenants, who fail to pay their rent on time, often find it very hard to evict them.

However, the managing director of the Tenants’ Association of Upper Austria, Sonja Toifl-Campregher, said it would be "absolute madness" to try and undermine tenants’ rights any further. Landlords are already able to limit leases to ‘just’ three years, she said.

The majority of tenants in Austria look for a lease a 10 year lease, or even an unlimited lease, which is becoming rarer. If tenants do fall into rent arrears they can be evicted, but it can take several months and involves taking them to court.

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