Rent Control in Austria: The MRG Three Tiers and Richtwertmietzins Explained

Austria's Mietrechtsgesetz, the MRG, does not apply the same way to every rented flat in the country. Whether a landlord can charge only a capped rent, or whether rent is a matter of free negotiation, depends on which of three statutory tiers the tenancy falls into. Getting the tier right is the single most important step before checking any rent figure, because every downstream question, the rent cap, the termination protection, the notice rules, follows from it.

This page sets out the three tiers under Paragraph 1 MRG, the Richtwertmietzins system that caps rent inside the strictest tier, the current Richtwerte for each Bundesland, and the statutory grounds a landlord needs to end a protected tenancy under Paragraph 30 MRG.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Austrian law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The three MRG tiers: why the tier decides everything

Paragraph 1 MRG does not list which buildings are covered as a positive list. Instead, it sets out a general scope in Absatz 1 and then carves exceptions out of it in Absatz 2 (full exclusion), Absatz 4 (partial application) and Absatz 5 (a narrow business park exception). What remains after those carve outs is Vollanwendung, full application.

Vollanwendung: the strictest tier

A tenancy sits in Vollanwendung when it is a rental of a flat or business premises in a building with three or more independent units, and the building's construction permit was issued on or before 30 June 1953. It also includes subsidised housing, geförderter Wohnbau, built with the help of public funds, regardless of the permit date, because the Teilanwendung carve out below only reaches buildings built "ohne Zuhilfenahme öffentlicher Mittel," without recourse to public funds.

Inside Vollanwendung, both the rent cap (Richtwertmietzins or Kategoriemietzins, covered below) and the full Paragraph 30 termination protection apply. This is the tier most people mean when they talk about Austrian "rent control."

Teilanwendung: protection without a price cap

Paragraph 1 Abs 4 MRG carves out several categories of building into partial application. The largest of these, by far, is any building newly built without public subsidy under a construction permit issued after 30 June 1953. The statute is explicit that the boundary is a date, not a calendar year: it uses the phrase "nach dem 30. Juni 1953," meaning after 30 June 1953. A permit dated exactly 30 June 1953 or earlier keeps the building in Vollanwendung; a permit dated 1 July 1953 or later places an unsubsidised building in Teilanwendung.

Other Teilanwendung categories include an attic conversion completed after 31 December 2001, an extension completed after 30 September 2006, and most freely financed condominium units (Wohnungseigentum) built under a permit issued after 8 May 1945.

In Teilanwendung, only a specific list of MRG provisions applies: Paragraphs 14, 16b, 29 through 36, 45, 46 and 49. Critically, the rent limiting provisions, Paragraphs 15a, 16 and 16a, are not among them. That means a Teilanwendung landlord can set the rent freely and raise it at renewal, but still cannot end an open ended lease without a statutory ground, because Paragraphs 29 through 36, the termination and fixed term rules, do apply.

Vollausnahme: the ABGB governs instead

Paragraph 1 Abs 2 MRG excludes several categories from the MRG entirely. The two that come up most often are a building with no more than two independent flats or business premises (an attic space added later does not count toward that number), and housing tied to an employment relationship, Dienst-, Natural- or Werkswohnung.

Also excluded are short lets: a lease that expires by the passage of time and does not exceed six months, most often applied to Kategorie A or B flats let as a second home for recreation or leisure. Hotels, garages, transport and storage facilities, tied staff dormitories, and certain charitable socio-pedagogical housing round out the exclusion list.

Where the MRG is fully excluded, the general lease provisions of the ABGB, Paragraphs 1090 and following, govern instead. There is no statutory rent cap, and a landlord may end an open ended lease on ordinary notice without needing to prove one of the Paragraph 30 grounds.

A fourth, hybrid category exists outside these three: flats built by a gemeinnützige Bauvereinigung, a non-profit housing association, follow the MRG only "nach Maßgabe des Paragraph 20 WGG," meaning subject to the terms of the Wohnungsgemeinnützigkeitsgesetz. That is its own regime and should not be treated as any of the three tiers above.

Richtwertmietzins and Kategoriemietzins: the two rent cap systems

Inside Vollanwendung, Austria runs two separate rent cap systems depending on when the tenancy began.

Richtwertmietzins applies to a Vollanwendung tenancy let on or after 1 March 1994. The Richtwert is a base figure, in euros per square metre per month, set separately for each of the nine Bundesländer for a standard Kategorie A flat in average condition, the mietrechtliche Normwohnung. The actual permissible rent is the Richtwert adjusted by surcharges or deductions (Zu- und Abschläge) for factors like location, floor, condition and fittings.

Kategoriemietzins is the older system and still governs contracts that predate the Richtwert regime, from before 1 March 1994. It sets a flat euro figure per square metre per month by Ausstattungskategorie, the four fitting-out categories A through D, with no location adjustment.

Current Kategoriebeträge (per square metre per month, from 1 April 2026)

These figures rose by 1 percent effective 1 April 2026 under the valorisation mechanism in Paragraph 5 RichtWG, which for that date capped any increase at 1 percent. The prior figures, in force through 31 March 2026, were 4,47 (A), 3,35 (B), 2,23 (C) and 1,12 (D) euros.

Current Richtwerte by Bundesland (per square metre per month, effective 1 April 2026)

The 1 April 2023 figures had been frozen at that level for an unusually long stretch by a legislative amendment to Paragraph 5 Abs 2 RichtWG, a rent brake measure. The first re-valorisation since that freeze took effect on 1 April 2026, and the statute itself capped that specific increase at no more than 1 percent. A further increase, capped at 2 percent, is scheduled for 1 April 2027. Because these figures move on a fixed schedule, a reader should always check the effective date of any figure quoted, and this page was last checked against Statistik Austria, the publisher the RichtWG itself names for the valorised amounts, on the disclaimer date above.

Worked example

Take a 60 square metre Kategorie A flat in Wien, in a Vollanwendung building, let after 1 March 1994 with no special location surcharge or deduction applying. The base rent under the Richtwertmietzins would be the Wien Richtwert of 6,74 euros multiplied by 60 square metres, or 404,40 euros per month net, before operating costs and any applicable surcharges for particularly good location or condition. The same flat in Vorarlberg, at a Richtwert of 10,35 euros per square metre, would carry a base rent of 621 euros per month for the same size and Kategorie, purely because of the Bundesland it is in.

Paragraph 30 MRG: the statutory grounds for termination

In both Vollanwendung and Teilanwendung, a landlord cannot end an open ended (unbefristet) lease simply by giving notice. Paragraph 30 Abs 1 MRG states that the landlord may terminate the lease "nur aus wichtigen Gründen," only for important reasons, and Paragraph 33 MRG requires the landlord to do so through a court application, a gerichtliche Aufkündigung, never by letter.

The statute lists 16 specific grounds in Paragraph 30 Abs 2. The most commonly invoked include:

• Rent arrears of at least eight days after a reminder (Mietzinsrückstand)
• Seriously detrimental use of the flat, including intolerable conduct toward other residents or criminal acts against the landlord or other tenants (erheblich nachteiliger Gebrauch)
• Subletting the whole flat to a third party without needing it, or at a grossly disproportionate rent
• The flat no longer being used regularly for the tenant's urgent housing need, subject to exceptions for absence due to illness, study or work
• The landlord's own urgent need for the premises for personal use or for descendants, weighed against the tenant's interests (Eigenbedarf), or the same need where the landlord provides the tenant a replacement flat
• The building can no longer be adequately maintained from the rents it generates, a demolition permit has been granted, and a replacement is provided

A contract clause that gives the landlord broader termination rights than this list is void under Paragraph 30 Abs 3. The Eigenbedarf ground is also barred for ten years after the landlord bought the building from someone else, and a co-owner needs at least half ownership to invoke several of these grounds.

Because a landlord cannot end a Vollanwendung or Teilanwendung tenancy by simple notice, a tenant who receives a letter purporting to terminate the lease outside of a court Aufkündigung should treat it as unenforceable rather than as a valid notice to leave. For the full mechanics of ending a tenancy, including fixed term leases and the tenant's own exit rights, see ending a tenancy.

Why the tier matters more than the Richtwert table

A tenant who only looks up the Richtwert for their Bundesland, without first confirming they are in Vollanwendung, can reach the wrong answer entirely. A flat in a building permitted in 1960 with no public subsidy sits in Teilanwendung: the landlord can charge whatever rent the market bears, and the Richtwert table above simply does not apply to it, even though the same tenant still has the Paragraph 30 protection against being evicted without a statutory ground. Confirming the building's permit date and subsidy history is the necessary first step, not an afterthought.

Operating costs, the separate Betriebskosten a landlord may pass on to the tenant on top of the rent itself, follow their own exhaustive list under Paragraph 21 MRG regardless of which tier the rent cap sits in. See operating costs for that breakdown.