Tyrol government backs plan to simplify building rules

Tyrol’s government has approved a proposal to simplify building and spatial-planning regulations, ORF reported. The changes would make it easier to install sun-protection systems as “subordinate building components” and introduce other measures to reduce bureaucratic hurdles.

The proposal would facilitate construction measures to prevent buildings from overheating in summer. It would also ease the thermal renovation of buildings constructed from 1998 onwards by allowing additional full thermal insulation to be up to 10 centimetres thicker than currently permitted.

Changes are also planned in accessibility regulations. In residential buildings with up to three apartments, inspection intervals for lifts and lifting systems would be extended from one year to two.

Other measures include longer inspection periods for heating and air-conditioning systems, lower parking requirements for employee housing and broader exemptions from approval requirements for changes to plots of land.

Tyrol Governor Anton Mattle of the Austrian People’s Party said the aim was to make procedures simpler and faster while removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers without compromising safety or quality. His deputy, Josef Geisler, said the rules should be clear, understandable and practical, and should be regularly reviewed.

SPÖ deputy governor Philip Wohlgemuth said the changes should make housing construction easier alongside existing housing-support measures. SPÖ housing spokesperson Elisabeth Blanik said rules that protect safety and quality remained necessary, but those that create unnecessary costs or delay procedures without providing real added value should be reviewed. She said it was particularly important that the Tyrol state parliament could pass the legislation this year.