The index adjustment of the benchmark rents will be suspended this year and postponed to 2022.
The adjustment of the benchmark rents to inflation, which affects around 500,000 old and community housing tenants, is suspended for this year. Because of the pandemic, the valorization, which should take place in April, will be postponed.
The interest rate adjustment is legally stipulated every two years and last took place in 2019. This affects tenants who live in private old buildings that were built before 1945 and whose lease was concluded after March 1, 1994. For tenants of an 80 square meter apartment in an old building in Vienna, the valorization would result in additional costs of 185 euros per year. In other words: the expected index adjustment of 3.01 percent would raise the benchmark in Vienna from 5.81 to 5.98 euros per square meter.
Relief for tenants due to the pandemic
With the suspension, tenants – many have problems paying their rent due to short-time work or unemployment – should be relieved. The demand to suspend the adjustment of the benchmark rents came from the tenant cleaning service and the Chamber of Labor.
The real estate industry clearly rejected this demand in advance. For those really hard hit by the pandemic, there could be a special solution, but no preferential treatment for all tenants according to the watering can principle, said the chairman of the Vienna real estate trustee, Michael Pisecky. Because it is a contractual value adjustment to inflation. The real estate industry rejects unilateral interference in the contracts, said ÖVI managing director Anton Holzapfel.
The request to suspend the benchmark adjustment this year was brought to parliament on Wednesday and assigned to the building committee. This will take place next Tuesday.
The rent law pandemic mitigation law (MPFLG for short) is to come into force in April. The next adjustment of the reference value is planned for April 1, 2022.
