Non-profit housing developers call for a ban on evictions – salzburg.ORF.at
The current price development for electricity and gas is a main topic for non-profit housing developers throughout Austria. At its annual conference, which has been taking place in St. Wolfgang (Upper Austria) since Wednesday, the industry wants to discuss intensively what needs to be done in advance of the heat-intensive season.
Expensive gas: 75 m2 apartment 200 euros more expensive
The price jumps are huge: in recent years, the gas price was two cents per kilowatt hour, now we have a daily value of 27 cents – you can see that there has been a multiplication. As a result, a 75 square meter apartment with three rooms costs EUR 200 more per month,” explains Herwig Pernsteiner, Deputy Chairman of the Association of Non-Profit Housing Associations.
Already 30 percent more reminders
The high energy costs are increasingly causing fiscal problems – housing developers are already noticing this clearly: the industry has 30 percent more open reminders compared to the previous year. “And we can see that we’re not finished yet, we expect that the number of dunning notices will continue to rise by the end of the year,” says Isabella Stickler, Chairwoman of the Alpenland housing cooperative in St. Pölten.
Non-profit organizations are demanding a ban on evictions
The non-profit housing industry therefore also has demands in the direction of politics. Among other things, a ban on evictions is needed again, as was the case during the pandemic: “We have to have the residents and we can guarantee residents over the winter that they can stay in the apartments – no matter what price situation we have. We somehow have to compensate for this with subsidies, discounts and installment payments. But that’s just band-aid on the wound. The cause, namely the nonsense of pricing in the energy sector through the merit-order principle, must be remedied,” demands Christian Struber, chairman of the Association of Non-Profit Housing Associations.
Households are also called upon to save energy
The non-profit housing developers are also aimed at households – saving energy is the order of the day: The savings potential is enormous, the housing industry has observed that the energy requirements of large apartments with comparable hours differ by a factor of three. In the long term, however, only a conversion to renewable energy sources will help. In new buildings, oil and gas heating has been banned for more than two years. However, the conversion of existing residential complexes is a project that will take at least a decade.