Renting in Austria: deposits, Mietrecht and your rights as a tenant

Austria has rent control, but only for part of the market, and the building decides whether your flat is in it. A flat in a pre-war apartment block can have its rent capped by law, while an identical flat in a building put up in the 1990s can be let for whatever the market pays.

The deposit surprises people the other way. There’s no statutory cap on it, but a cash deposit has to be kept in an interest-bearing account separate from the landlord’s own money, and it comes back with the interest.

Which rules apply: the building decides

Everything else in this article depends on which of three levels of the MRG covers your flat. The social affairs ministry’s guide to where the Tenancy Act applies (in German) sets them out like this.

Level	Typical flats	What you get
Vollanwendung (full application)	Rental flats in buildings with a building permit from before 1 July 1953; flats in subsidised buildings; owner-flats (Wohnungseigentum) in buildings permitted on or before 8 May 1945	Rent limits, deposit rules, fixed-term rules, protection against termination, regulated service charges
Teilanwendung (partial application)	Flats in privately financed buildings permitted after 30 June 1953; owner-flats in buildings permitted after 8 May 1945; attic conversions permitted after 2001	Deposit rules, fixed-term rules and protection against termination, but no rent limit
Vollausnahme (full exception)	Houses with no more than two flats; flats provided through your job; holiday homes; some short lets of up to 6 months for work relocations	Only the general civil code and your contract

Most newcomers in Vienna rent either an Altbau flat (older building), usually under full application, or a Neubau flat (newer building), usually under partial application. The rules in this article are the same in all nine states; the rent levels and where you go with a dispute are the parts that vary.

Two groups follow separate systems. Non-profit housing association flats (Genossenschaftswohnungen) are governed mainly by non-profit housing law and cost-based rents, and sublets have extra rules of their own, so this article covers ordinary main tenancies (Hauptmiete) with private and commercial landlords.

TIP – A listing often says “MRG-Vollanwendung”, “Teilanwendung” or “Altbau”. If it doesn’t, the building’s age is the first clue, and the landlord or property manager can say which level they think applies (a “renovated Altbau” is still an Altbau for the MRG).

Rent limits in fully covered flats: the Richtwert

Where the MRG applies in full, the net rent (Hauptmietzins) usually can’t exceed the Richtwertmietzins: a reference rent per square metre per month (the Richtwert) set for each state, plus or minus adjustments for location, fittings and condition.

The Richtwerte change each year on 1 April. Statistik Austria’s page on Richtwerte and Kategoriebeträge (in German) publishes the current values, per square metre of floor area per month:

State	Richtwert per m²
Burgenland	EUR 6.15
Carinthia	EUR 7.89
Lower Austria	EUR 6.92
Upper Austria	EUR 7.30
Salzburg	EUR 9.31
Styria	EUR 9.30
Tyrol	EUR 8.22
Vorarlberg	EUR 10.35
Vienna	EUR 6.74

Vienna’s Richtwert is among the lowest in the country, which is why regulated rents in Vienna can sit so far below advertised prices.

Real regulated rents are usually higher than the bare Richtwert, because surcharges for a good location and good fittings are allowed. A location surcharge (Lagezuschlag) only counts if the landlord told you in writing, by the time the contract was signed, what it’s based on.

Three more rules from the rent provisions of the Tenancy Act (in German) do most of the work for tenants:

• Fixed-term discount. In a fixed-term contract, the maximum rent is 25 % lower than it would be in an open-ended one.
• Excess is void. A rent agreement is invalid to the extent it exceeds the legal maximum, and the overpaid part can be claimed back.
• Deadlines. In an open-ended tenancy, the rent has to be challenged within 3 years of signing. In a fixed-term tenancy, the deadline runs until at least 6 months after the tenancy ends or becomes open-ended, and overpayments can then be reclaimed for up to 10 years.

Some older contracts and flats of the lowest fittings standard (category D) use fixed amounts per square metre instead of the Richtwert. Large flats and flats in listed buildings restored at the landlord’s expense can be let at an “appropriate” market-based rent even in full application.

Whether a particular flat really is in full application, and what surcharges it justifies, is where most rent disputes are fought. The section on challenging rent below covers where that happens.

Fixed-term contracts (Befristung)

Most new contracts are fixed-term (befristet), and landlords like them because a fixed-term tenancy simply ends on its end date. The MRG allows that only on conditions, which apply in both full and partial application, according to the federal portal’s page on fixed-term tenancies (in German).

The fixed term has to be agreed in writing. For contracts signed or renewed from 1 January 2026, it must run at least 5 years if the landlord is a business and at least 3 years if the landlord is a private individual. Renewals have to meet the same minimum.

Which landlords count as a business follows consumer protection law. A company or a professional property manager letting its own stock clearly does; a private owner with several flats may too, which is decided case by case, and the landlord has to prove they aren’t one.

If the term runs out and neither side acts, the contract renews once, automatically, for another 5 or 3 years. If it runs out again with neither side acting, it becomes open-ended.

You have a right to leave early that the contract can’t take away. After the first year, you can give notice to the last day of any month, with 3 months’ notice.

A term that breaks these rules (too short, or not agreed in writing) turns the tenancy into an open-ended one, and the landlord then needs a legal ground and a court to end it.

Rent increases: index clauses and the 2026 caps

Almost every Austrian lease has a Wertsicherungsklausel (index clause) tying the rent to the consumer price index. Since 1 January 2026, the Rent Indexation Act (Mieten-Wertsicherungsgesetz) (in German) caps what those clauses can do, for flats in both full and partial application. It’s named here because landlords and property managers cite it in increase letters.

The cap works on four rules:

• Once a year, on 1 April. An increase can only take effect on 1 April, based on the average change in the consumer price index over the previous calendar year.
• Half above the threshold. Inflation up to 3 % passes through in full. Only half of anything above that counts.
• First year pro rata. The first increase comes on 1 April of the first full calendar year after signing, and counts only the full months the contract ran in the year before.
• Tighter for regulated rents. Where the MRG’s rent limits apply, the index change for 2025 counts at most 1% (for the 1 April 2026 increase) and for 2026 at most 2% (for the 1 April 2027 increase).

The law only limits an index clause the contract already has. A contract with no index clause gets no automatic increase, and a clause more generous to the tenant than the cap still applies as written.

The same reform applies to contracts signed before 2026, for increases from 2026 onwards, according to the social affairs ministry’s summary of the 2026 tenancy changes (in German). Houses with no more than two flats and non-profit housing flats are outside it.

Index clauses in contracts signed before 2026

Whether older index clauses in consumer leases are valid at all has been fought through the courts. In June 2025, the Constitutional Court’s decision on index clauses under consumer protection law (in German) upheld the consumer protection rule that many of those challenges relied on.

The legislature then stepped in from 1 January 2026: the ministry’s summary says claims to recover increases under an invalid clause are now generally limited to the last 5 years, with exceptions. Whether a particular older clause is valid, and how much could be recovered, depends on its exact wording and history, which is a question for a tenancy lawyer or tenant adviser.

The deposit (Kaution)

There’s no statutory cap on a deposit. According to the federal portal’s page on deposits (in German), three gross monthly rents (net rent, service charges and VAT) is usual, up to six is acceptable, and more only where the landlord has a particular need for security.

Where the MRG applies in full or in part, a cash deposit has to be invested with interest, in a savings account or something equally safe and well-paying, and kept clearly apart from the landlord’s own assets. If the landlord goes insolvent, the deposit is ring-fenced for you.

At the end of the tenancy, the landlord has to repay it without delay, with the interest it earned, less only justified claims from the tenancy: unpaid rent or service charges, or damage beyond normal wear and tear. A Supreme Court decision on deposit accounting (in German) confirms you can demand an account of how it was invested and the interest it actually earned, not a notional rate from an online calculator. The social affairs ministry’s FAQ on deposits (in German) treats 2 to 4 weeks for checking the flat as customary before the money goes back.

A bank guarantee or a pledged savings book in your own name are also common, and keep the money under your control. For a flat fully outside the MRG, the tenancy law’s deposit rules don’t apply at all, so what happens to the money depends on the contract’s deposit clause and general civil law.

A signed handover record (Übergabeprotokoll) with dated photos at both move-in and move-out is what most deposit disputes are decided on.

Service charges, VAT and the contract itself

On top of the net rent, tenants pay service charges (Betriebskosten): water, waste collection, chimney sweeping, lighting and cleaning of common areas, building insurance, property tax and management costs. In full application, the Tenancy Act’s rules on service charges (in German) list what can be passed on, and anything else can’t.

The landlord usually collects a monthly advance and has to produce the annual statement by 30 June of the following year, with the receipts open to inspection. A surplus is refunded, and a shortfall charged, with the rent due two months later; costs that fell due more than a year before can no longer be passed on.

Under partial application, the service charges are whatever the contract says, and that list is worth reading before signing.

Payment	What’s added	Note
Net rent and service charges	VAT at 10 %	Charged only by landlords who aren’t exempt from VAT
Heating supplied with the flat	VAT at 20 %	Heat supplied alongside the letting is taxed at the standard rate
The lease contract itself	No lease fee	Residential leases have been exempt since 11 November 2017

The VAT rates come from Austria’s VAT law on reduced rates (in German), and the stamp-duty exemption from the fees law’s rule on leases (in German). A private landlord using the small-business VAT exemption (Kleinunternehmerregelung) charges no VAT at all.

Agent fees (Maklerprovision)

Since 1 July 2023, whoever commissioned the estate agent pays the agent’s fee (Maklerprovision), the principle known as Bestellerprinzip. In practice that’s nearly always the landlord, because the agent is usually marketing the flat for them.

A tenant pays only where they were the first to hire the agent to find a flat. They owe nothing if the agent was already advertising the flat with the landlord’s consent, or is linked to the landlord, and it’s for the agent to show those exceptions don’t apply. According to the federal portal’s page on agent fees (in German), the fee is then capped at:

• 2 months’ gross rent for an open-ended tenancy or a fixed term of more than 3 years;
• 1 month’s gross rent for a fixed term of up to 3 years.

“Gross rent” here means net rent plus service charges, without VAT, and for a flat with a legally capped rent also without heating costs. VAT of 20 % is added to the fee, and extending a fixed term can add at most half a month’s gross rent, within the same overall cap.

Repairs and payments you don’t owe

In full application, the landlord maintains the building’s shared parts and fixes serious damage and health hazards inside the flat. According to the social affairs ministry’s FAQ on repairs and maintenance (in German), that has included repairing or replacing a gas boiler (Therme) supplied with the flat since 1 January 2015, while the tenant pays for routine servicing.

Under partial application or outside the MRG, general civil law puts a broad repair duty on the landlord, which contracts often try to shift to the tenant. The ministry notes that such clauses often fall foul of consumer protection law, which makes the wording of a specific clause a question for a tenant adviser.

In full application, a payment to the landlord or the outgoing tenant for nothing in return, such as “key money” or an Ablöse for furniture worth far less, is void. The Tenancy Act’s rule on prohibited payments (in German) lets you claim it back, with interest, for 10 years.

One more signature matters at the start. Your landlord, as the person granting you accommodation (Unterkunftgeber), signs your Meldezettel (the address-registration form), which you then file within 3 days of moving in.

Ending the tenancy

Situation	Tenant	Landlord
Open-ended tenancy under the MRG	Written notice, usually 1 month to the end of a month	Only through the court, and only on a ground the law recognises
Fixed-term tenancy under the MRG	Can leave after the first year, on 3 months’ notice to the end of a month	Tenancy ends on the agreed date
Outside the MRG	As the contract says	As the contract says

Tenant notice must be in writing, and the federal portal’s page on giving notice (in German) says an email alone isn’t enough. A registered letter with proof of delivery is the usual route.

A landlord’s grounds are listed in the Tenancy Act’s rules on termination (in German): rent arrears, seriously damaging use or intolerable behaviour, unauthorised subletting, the landlord’s own urgent need, and a handful of others. The court decides whether a ground is made out.

One ground matters to internationally mobile tenants: the flat not being used for the regular housing needs of the tenant or close relatives. Absence for work, study or a health cure is an exception, so a hypothetical tenant posted abroad for a limited period is covered by it, while one who has moved their life elsewhere and keeps the flat for occasional visits is exposed.

Challenging rent or recovering a deposit

Rent that exceeds the legal maximum, a service charge statement, and the amount of a deposit to be repaid are all decided in a special, cheaper procedure under the Tenancy Act’s rules on dispute procedure (in German).

Where your municipality has a Schlichtungsstelle (tenancy arbitration board), the case has to start there, and either side can then take it to the district court (Bezirksgericht). Only ten municipalities have one, according to the Court of Audit’s report on tenancy arbitration boards (PDF, in German).

The federal portal’s deposit page says arbitration boards can’t handle deposit disputes. The Tenancy Act says otherwise, listing the deposit amount among the matters that go through them, and the Court of Audit found deposit claims made up a fifth to a third of all cases at the Innsbruck and Salzburg boards.

Whether a given flat is fully covered, which surcharges its rent can carry, or whether an older index clause holds up all turn on the building’s history and the contract’s exact wording. That’s the point where a tenancy lawyer (the Austrian Bar’s online register lists every practising Rechtsanwalt) or a tenant adviser earns their fee. Employees can get free tenancy advice from their chamber of labour (Arbeiterkammer), and tenant associations advise their members.

Official sources

• Social affairs ministry: where the Tenancy Act applies (Anwendungsbereich des Mietrechtsgesetzes) (in German)
• Statistik Austria: Richtwerte und Kategoriebeträge (in German)
• Social affairs ministry: changes to tenancy law from 1 January 2026 (in German)
• oesterreich.gv.at: fixed-term tenancies (Befristung von Mietverträgen) (in German)
• oesterreich.gv.at: deposits (Kaution) (in German)
• oesterreich.gv.at: agent fees (Provision) (in German)