Rent increases of up to 100 percent are to be slowed down by an interest rate freeze. The Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor sees the banks as having a duty in this regard.
In March of the previous year, Ms. L. lived in her cooperative apartment in Mödling for a cheap 460 euros per month. Today the 39-year-old has to shell out 920 euros for it. So twice as much. Why? Experts from the Chamber of Labor explain that the massive increase in variable interest rates on construction financing is to blame. The construction of apartments is often financed by cooperatives through loans with variable interest rates. If these rise rapidly, as they have recently, it will cause rents to explode. “The cooperatives are legally obliged to pass on these costs,” says Markus Wieser, President of the Chamber of Labor in Lower Austria: “Therefore, the regulations have already been increased tenfold over the course of the year. For many, apartment rents are hardly affordable anymore.”Wieser is calling for quick relief by stopping or freezing interest rates. Therefore, the AKNÖ President is convinced that it should be possible for the cooperatives to reach solutions with the banks in this regard. Wieser: “The goal must be to reduce the burden on tenants.”
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