Vienna in the construction backlog: Politician finally demands speed for permits!

Vienna in the construction backlog: Politician finally demands speed for permits!

On May 23, 2025, a press conference of the Chamber of Civil Technicians for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland took place, in which the problems and challenges for building permits in Vienna were discussed. According to [ots] (https://www.ots.at/presseaus-sung/ots_20250523_ots0114/olischhar- Mehr-tempo-baufehungen-Stadt-Muss-Muss-Auf der Daemmerschlaf-Wachen), 33% of the building permits in the capital take longer than twelve months. These delays have direct effects on the construction costs and lead to a significant number of missing apartments in the city.

Elisabeth Olishar, the planning spokeswoman for the Vienna People's Party and the councilor, critically commented on the overly long procedure. It pleads for a rethink in the building permits and emphasizes the need to simplify the processes and make them more efficient. "Faster procedures are crucial for the economic situation and cost reduction," says Olischar. It calls on the city of Vienna to take the concerns of the chamber seriously and to take specific measures to improve the procedures.

Need for digitization

Another central point of the discussion is the lack of digitization of the construction processes in Vienna. According to Brise, the project is designed to optimize the administration and to accelerate the handling of authorities. BRISE stands for "Building Regulation Information for Submission Envolvement" and aims to digitize building searches and building permits through innovative technologies. The use of digital and analog participation processes is intended to ensure the democracy and service orientation of the administration.

The project receives 4.8 million euros in funding from the EU initiative "Urban Innovative Actions" and could position Vienna as a pioneer in the field of efficient construction processes. Around 13,000 building submissions are currently being processed annually, but the complexity of paper applications regularly leads to procedural times of up to one year. Digitization promises not only to make these processes faster and more transparent, but also to make it cheaper.

outlook for the future

The timely implementation of the digitization projects, such as breeze, could not only revolutionize the construction processes itself, but also make the entire administrative system of the City of Vienna up to date and citizen -friendly. This is an important step to meet the building carpets in a growing city and at the same time keep the costs in check.