Buying Property

Wondering what the real costs are in buying a property in Austria. I am just forming an idea at the moment, so would like to know as much as possible.

Basically the idea is to buy a property, preferably 3 bedroom in a mid size resort. Rent it out other than when I am using it and manage it remotely. Its the last part I need some guidance on. I assume there are companies or individuals out there who would provide this service, does anyone have experience or know of any useful resources?

I have been on mailing lists for sometime for property and the prices rather unsurprisingly have become a little more affordable right now. I currently do not own my own home, I rent as is fairly normal in Germany. I am willing to downsize privately in order to potentially finance this, so effectively all I need for the property in Austria is to pay 60-70% of its own mortgage and provide me a base whenever needed.

Any ideas?

http://www.aboutaustria.org/living/moving_to_austria.htm

Tino, I know you will, but ensure you do a full research job before buying. A friend of mine has an apartment near Kaprun. He bought it to use, not rent, but it appears the Austrians have some quite strange laws about using residential property for commercial purposes.

This may be why there are so few self -catering type holidays in Austria.

(doesn't matter)

Locally, (N), it appears that in order to buy property, you must have residence. A fellow that I know has built a house, and put it in his son's name. His son is an Austrian resident.

I believe that there are ways to overcome the residency issue, through an Austrian solicitor.

Certainly, there are fewer Austrian self catering places than France, but I am pretty certain than Austrian S/C is on a par with most other countries.

My final point is that, (again locally), ownership and management seem to be unitary, ie owners do the management. This may not be the case in Kaprun. This might be a starting point. Perhaps, you might contact some Kaprun S/Cs and ask them.

I do offer this as "arms length info", since I would never buy a property abroad, and if I did, it would not be in Kaprun. Nor Niederau.

We looked into moving to Austria, particularly Seefeld,a couple of years ago. We could not find any propertys's there that we could actually live in and make our home. Real estate agents told us that residences tended to pass down to families or they were bought by the neighbouring farmers/landowners. But you would be encouraged to buy appartments etc that could be let throughout the year, adding to the bed count of the area. We were prepared to sell up lock stock and barrel and start again, but it was'nt to be.

Thanks all, it would be a new build I have been looking at, simply from a time and ease point of view. It is only a fledgling idea at the moment, but it would be a interesting time to buy as prices drop/stabilize somewhat.

One question I have, if you stay in a catetered chalet somewhere, I assume the chalets are privately owned and run through the TO at a premium to the owner? Is this assumption far off the mark?

Tino, have you been in touch with any builders yet? They usually have access to all the necessary people to get the behind the scenes stuff sorted.

If you own a property, then you can offer it to a Tour Op for a season, put it with a rental agency to be managed, or run it yourself through a site like this,

http://holidaylettings.co.uk/

There are european language versions as well, some owners are on several. Some sites charge for listing, it's all in the small print )