The tenants at Hellbrunner Strasse 10 want to buy their apartments. The purchase price of the home country Austria is too high for them. Their boss counters.
Rent-to-buy models are popular: As a result, in August 2019 the federal government reduced the period from which you can buy a rent-to-own apartment from ten to five years after the purchase date. However: A sometimes difficult question is how much an apartment that you have rented for five or ten years is worth? A dispute has broken out in the residential complex of the home of Austria at Hellbrunner Strasse 10 in Salzburg-Nonntal: The house with 21 rental apartments was handed over in autumn 2010. As a result, the tenants received a purchase offer from the property developer.
However, this did not satisfy a number of tenants – such as Peter Macht. His accusation: “The homeland of Austria wants to turn the property into a cash cow. The basic idea was different.” Because as the tenants calculate in a letter to the cooperative, the land and construction costs (as of 2010) would result in a square meter price of 2477 euros. With its 89-m22 apartment he would therefore come to a purchase price of around 220,000 euros, power calculates. “The homeland of Austria wants us to pay 347,000 euros.” That corresponds to a square meter price of almost 3900 euros; with others you even ask for up to 5000 euros, he criticizes.
Tenant Josef Pongruber also agrees: “There are legal limits when it comes to raising the price of a rent-to-buy apartment. But apparently they are not being adhered to.” In addition, the home of Austria is a non-profit and not a commercial property developer, stresses Pongruber: “A price premium of over 50 percent is no longer charitable for me. Our good location must not be an argument either.” Pongruber as well as Macht also complain that due to the high prices they do not receive any housing subsidies from the state when buying.
Heimat Austria managing director Stephan Gröger explains the calculation as follows: “The apartments have a view of the fortress and are facing away from the street. 2477 euros would be well below the market value, which is sometimes 6000 to 7000 euros and is even higher than that Market value.” Since the amendment to the Non-Profit Housing Act (WGG), property developers have also had to take the market value into account: “It is also about preventing possible speculation – for the next 15 years,” emphasizes Gröger. The aim of the legislature was that such apartments would not be resold and thus squandered public-benefit assets, he says.
Specifically, the basic and construction costs in Hellbrunner Strasse were taken from 2010 – minus one percent depreciation per year and plus a one-off statutory building administration fee of three percent, says Gröger. That gives the calculation value. “But if, as here, the market value differs significantly from the calculation value, the developer may increase the value up to the market value.” This is also done for a maximum of ten percent of rental apartments. As a concession to the buyer, seven percent are deducted from the market value. Gröger: “Our offer is therefore very fair. I have a very clear conscience.” In addition, the rental buyers would have benefited from the very cheap rent for ten years, he emphasizes. Furthermore, some tenants in the property have already bought the apartments for the proposed price. Gröger also emphasizes that if the price asked is below half the market value, “the criminally relevant question of breach of trust would also arise”.
Provincial councilor Andrea Klambauer (Neos) says that the approach taken by the home country Austria is correct: “The fact is that many rental-purchase apartments were sold very cheaply – between 2000 and 2500 euros per square meter – and in some cases were resold by more than double.” That had to be prevented. In terms of housing subsidies, there is now an adjustment: “We want to use up to 88 percent of the market value as the limit. Until then, you can apply for purchase subsidies. This is also used in Hellbrunner Straße.” If the property has already been sold, the funding offer will be retroactive. Stephan Gröger emphasizes that he therefore wants to increase the discount on the market value from seven to twelve percent.
Between 2016 and 2019, between 45 and 147 rental apartments were sold in the state each year. The purchase subsidy was between 17,000 and 19,000 euros. In 2019, 77 new rental apartments in the state were built or guaranteed.
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