Contribution of spatial planning to affordable housing in Austria

Abstract

Developing the affordable housing stock is an ongoing political and social challenge with great relevance for ensuring equal living conditions and social peace. With the aim of providing a certain share of low-priced dwellings, planning authorities seek to mobilise suitable plots of land and support developers with subsidies. These mechanisms are complex and therefore the coordinating board for planning in Austria, the Austrian Conference on Spatial Planning, started a so called ‘partnership’ by bringing relevant stakeholders together to evaluate the actual contribution of spatial planning to affordable housing. As a result, recommendations were formulated that now serve as policy guideline for the further development of planning instruments towards a flexible and demand orientated Affordable Housing production. The paper sums up the stakeholder discussion and depicts the current challenges and potentials spatial planning faces in Austria. Thereby, the paper contributes to the international discussion of developing planning instruments and approaches.