Vienna's social housing as a role model for cities worldwide

Every year, delegations from all over the world visit the City of Vienna to learn about its housing policy.

The interest in Vienna's social housing is unbroken. Every year, delegations from all over the world come to Vienna to learn about the city's housing policy. The focus is on how social housing can be implemented so consistently and successfully over so many years.

Delegations from around the world

Housing experts from Australia, the Middle and Far East and California regularly come to Vienna. In 2024, guests included the Australian Secretary of the Department of Social Services, Ray Griggs, and the Deputy Mayor of London, Tom Copley. Jan Holásek, Tomás Golán and other members of the Constitutional Committee of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic also visited Vienna.

London has had a housing strategy since 2018, which includes an affordable housing programme. For this reason, London's Deputy Mayor for Housing, Tom Copley, visited Vienna in mid-March and met with Deputy Mayor and Executive City Councillor for Housing Kathrin Gaál. The programme included visits to historic municipal buildings such as the Reumannhof as well as new, innovative housing projects such as Quartier Wolfgangasse and the Sonnwendviertel. The visit was rounded off with a tour of the "Red Vienna" exhibition in the famous Karl-Marx-Hof municipal building, the longest continuous residential building in the world.

Tom Copley was very impressed and now hopes to use the knowledge gained in Vienna to help tackle the lack of affordable housing in London.

Housing exhibition in Dakar

Vienna is regularly invited to international conferences to present its model of affordable housing in lectures, discussions and exhibitions. The "Vienna Model of Social Housing" is a travelling exhibition that is on tour worldwide. In May 2024, the exhibition was on display in Dakar, Senegal.

Some students from the Collège Universitaire d'Architecture de Dakar were actively involved in realisation of the exhibition. As part of an internship, they were able to explore the special features of social housing in Dakar and Vienna.

As in all cities, the creation of affordable housing is an important issue in Dakar. Accordingly, there was a great deal of interest and a large crowd at the opening. Mayor of Dakar Barthélémy Dias, Austrian Ambassador Ursula Fahringer and the President of the Vienna Provincial Parliament, Ernst Woller, opened the exhibition.

Vienna's housing policy as a global role model

In total, about half of the two million inhabitants of Vienna live in social or subsidised housing.

When it comes to quality of life, Vienna consistently achieves excellent rankings. Affordable housing is a key success factor. In 2020, Vienna received the Netexplo Smart Cities Award for its "innovative, intelligent, networked and explicitly sustainable" housing policy. UNESCO has recognised Vienna's inclusive housing policy as a global model.

The "Vienna Model of Social Housing" has long been a travelling exhibition. The exhibition is currently on display in Slovenia and afterwards will be going to Senegal.