Tyrol Greens demand stricter land mobilisation levy

Tyrol’s opposition Greens have criticised a proposed land mobilisation levy agreed by the province’s governing coalition of the conservative Austrian People’s Party and Social Democrats, ORF reported. They are calling for the levy to be mandatory, with all revenue earmarked for affordable housing.

The draft law is due to take effect in 2027, while municipalities would be able to introduce the levy from 2032. The consultation period ends this week.

Greens call for fewer exemptions

Greens leader and parliamentary group chairman Gebi Mair said the draft was a patchwork with too many exemptions that would ultimately create unfairness. He spoke at a news conference in Innsbruck on Thursday.

Mair said the levy would not adequately affect large landowners, even though they were important to efforts to bring building land onto the market. Under the draft, the rate would decrease for larger plots. Mair called instead for a progressive system in which the rate rises with the size of the property. He said the Greens did not reject the levy in principle.

The proposed system also does not guarantee that the revenue will make housing in Tyrol more affordable, Mair said. It remains unclear how many municipalities will introduce the voluntary levy from 2032, or whether the money could be spent on projects such as football stadiums.

Revenue must be directed to housing subsidies and rent assistance, Mair said. Greens housing spokesperson Zeliha Arslan also called for the waiting period to be shortened, so that municipalities could begin collecting the levy in 2029 rather than 2032. She said large landowners and speculators should both be required to pay.

Farmers’ representatives raise objections

The proposal has also drawn criticism from the ÖVP’s farmers’ wing. According to the Tiroler Tageszeitung, the ÖVP dominated Tyrol Chamber of Agriculture said in its submission that the levy could be unconstitutional because it interfered with property rights and could increase pressure on farming families to sell.

Chamber President and ÖVP member of the National Council Josef Hechenberger previously described the levy as another burden on land and called for agricultural businesses to be protected.

Tyrol’s deputy governor and agriculture councillor, Josef Geisler, who also heads the Farmers’ Union, defended the draft. He said the objections would be examined but that the legislation had been carefully negotiated with the Social Democrats.

Opposition parties reject proposal

Other opposition parties in Tyrol have also criticised the amendment. FPÖ leader Markus Abwerzger called it a disproportionate intervention in private property and said the coalition should use reserved areas for subsidised housing instead of pursuing what he described as left wing ideological experiments.

Liste Fritz called the proposal a toothless failure with too many exemptions. NEOS said it had opposed such a levy from the outset and argued that it would not solve Tyrol’s housing problem.

Levy included in coalition programme

The land mobilisation levy was included in the coalition government’s programme and was regarded particularly by the Social Democrats as a central project of the legislative term.

The planned law targets building land reserves that remain unused for long periods and the speculative hoarding of building land. After an appropriate transition period, municipalities would be able to impose an annual levy on undeveloped plots designated as building land for residential or mixed use.

The provincial government said the levy would be collected exclusively by municipalities and that all revenue would remain with the respective municipality. The annual fixed amounts would be divided into three categories and set by each municipality through an ordinance. The amounts would be based on local property prices and subject to minimum and maximum rates.