Building Permits for New Housing Units in Austria

After the decline in the pandemic year 2020, WIFO's building permit forecast for 2021 expects a stabilisation before continued declines in 2022. The forecast values are 62,100 units in 2021 (+3.2 percent) and 59,400 units in 2022 (–4.3 percent). The construction of detached and semi-detached houses still benefits from the pandemic-related increase in demand in 2021 and reaches 20,400 units (+1.2 percent) according to the forecast. In 2022, the segment will stagnate at the same level with 0.1 percent growth. Multi-storey construction stabilises in 2021 from the significant losses in the previous year and reaches 41,700 units (+4.2 percent). For 2022, however, a decline of 6.4 percent is again expected, which means that multi-storey construction should show 39,000 building permits.