The Austrian National Bank (OeNB) published the Austria results of the euro area Bank Lending Survey for the first quarter of 2025, showing a marked rebound in household demand for housing loans and a further decline in corporate credit demand. Banks expect mortgage demand to rise again in the second quarter of 2025, while anticipating a slight uptick in corporate loan demand after a prolonged downturn. Falling interest rates were the main driver of stronger mortgage demand, alongside recent increases in households’ real incomes. The OeNB linked lower borrowing costs to European Central Bank policy rate cuts from 4% to 2.5% between June 2024 and March 2025; mortgage origination data show average new lending of around EUR 1.1bn per month in January and February 2025, more than 50% above the same period in 2024, although still below the 2021 average of EUR 2.1bn per month. Corporate loan demand has been declining from the fourth quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of 2025, primarily reflecting weaker financing needs for fixed investment; over the same period, banks tightened credit standards and terms for firms amid rising economic risks and a recession that has persisted since mid-2022. The survey was conducted in March 2025 as part of the quarterly euro area exercise run jointly by euro area national central banks and the European Central Bank, covering around 160 banks including eight in Austria. A fuller Austria-focused write-up is published in the OeNB’s “OeNB Reports”, with euro area-wide results published separately by the European Central Bank.

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