Austrian National Bank updates residential property price index showing a 2.1% nominal rise in 2025 but a further real price decline

The Austrian National Bank published updated data from its Residential Property Price Index, showing that Austrian prices for condominiums and single-family houses rose moderately in 2025. Nominal prices increased by 2.1%, but with inflation at 3.8% real residential property prices fell again, alongside signs of gradual market stabilisation after the interest rate turning point. Regional data show stronger price growth in Vienna (2.9%) than in the rest of Austria (1.6%). Since the start of the European Central Bank Governing Council’s policy rate increases in the third quarter of 2022, nominal residential property prices in Austria have fallen 3.3%, or around 16% after inflation, while incomes rose by about 19%, improving affordability in aggregate. The update also highlights different dynamics between new and existing apartments: between the third quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2024, prices for existing apartments fell 9.4% in Vienna and 6.5% in the rest of Austria, while new-build apartment prices were broadly flat in Vienna (–0.1%) and still rising outside Vienna (2.9%). Over the same period, quarterly transactions fell 61% in the new-build segment versus 26% for existing homes; since the first ECB rate cut on 12 June 2024, prices and transactions have increased, with new-build sales at around 2,500 per quarter still below the long-run average of about 3,100, and existing-home sales at about 10,700 slightly above the 10,500 average.