Building Permits for New Housing Units in Austria

After the decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, WIFO's building permit forecast for 2021 expects a stabilisation before renewed declines in 2022. The forecast values are 64,200 units in 2021 (+3.2 percent) and 62,000 units in 2022 (–3.4 percent). The construction of detached and semi-detached houses continues to benefit from the pandemic-related increase in demand in 2021 and is forecast to reach 21,000 units (+6.2 percent). In 2022, the segment will only grow weakly by 0.9 percent. Multi-storey construction stabilises in 2021 from the significant losses in the previous year and reaches 43,200 units (+1.7 percent). For 2022, however, a decline of 5.4 percent is again expected, as a result of which multi-storey construction is likely to show 40,800 building permits.