Tenant rights in Austria: what landlords can charge

You are renting in Vienna, a demand for a hefty deposit or an agent's commission has landed on your desk, and something about it feels off. Whether that charge is legal in Austria almost always comes down to one thing you can check yourself: how old your building is, and which tier of the federal tenancy law, the Mietrechtsgesetz (MRG), it falls under. Get that straight and you will know in minutes whether the rent, deposit and fees you are being charged are within the law.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-10. Seeki.eu is not a legal adviser; this is orientation, not legal advice. Austrian tenancy rules turn on your building's age and type, your contract, and recent reform, and they change. Confirm your own position with a tenancy lawyer or a tenants' association such as the Arbeiterkammer or the Mietervereinigung before you sign or dispute anything.

What can an Austrian landlord legally charge?

Every charge below turns on the same question: whether the MRG covers your flat in full. The deposit, agent fee and rent-increase caps are the three a tenant most often needs to challenge, each set against its rule and source.

Topic	The rule in Austria	Source
Deposit (Kaution)	Three months' gross rent is customary and up to six is permissible. Above six only where the landlord shows a special security interest	oesterreich.gv.at
Estate agent fee	Since 1 July 2023 the party who commissions the agent pays. In most rentals that is the landlord, not the tenant	oesterreich.gv.at
Which rules apply (MRG)	Full for pre-1953 rental blocks and subsidised or municipal flats, partial for newer private blocks, exempt for one- or two-family houses	arbeiterkammer.at
Regulated rent increases	No increase before April 2026, then a maximum 1% in 2026 and 2% in 2027 under the rent indexation act (Mieten-Wertsicherungsgesetz)	arbeiterkammer.at, konsumentenfragen.at
Fixed-term leases	Minimum term rises from three to five years for contracts from 1 January 2026, unless the landlord is not a business. Tenant may quit after year one on three months' notice	konsumentenfragen.at

Does the MRG cover your flat? Find your tier first

Austria sorts every flat into one of three MRG tiers, and which one yours falls into decides whether the rent is capped at all. Two flats on the same street can sit under completely different regimes, which is the fact a newcomer most often misses.

Full application (Vollanwendung). The full MRG covers rental flats in buildings of more than two units put up before 1 July 1953, rented condos in buildings from before 9 May 1945, and subsidised or municipal (Gemeinde) flats, according to the Arbeiterkammer, the statutory chamber of labour that advises Austrian tenants, as of August 2026. Here the rent is capped by law (the guideline-value system, Richtwert, or the older category system, below), termination protection is strong, and operating costs are statutory. This is the only tier where what a landlord charges has real legal limits.

Partial application (Teilanwendung). Flats in privately financed buildings put up after 30 June 1953, and rented condos from after 8 May 1945, fall here. Only a few MRG rules bite, chiefly the protection against arbitrary termination and the fixed-term rules. There is no rent cap, landlord and tenant agree the rent freely, and most newer purpose-built stock sits in this tier.

Full exemption (Vollausnahme). A lease over a one- or two-family house, a holiday flat, a service flat or a care-home place falls outside the MRG entirely, per the Arbeiterkammer. The general civil code applies instead, the rent is free, and the landlord can terminate on the contract's own terms.

How much deposit can a landlord ask for in Austria?

Three months' rent is the norm, six is the outer edge of what is permissible, and only a special security interest on the landlord's side justifies going beyond that. Austria's government portal oesterreich.gv.at states that a deposit (Kaution) of three gross monthly rents is customary (gross meaning net rent plus operating costs plus 10% VAT), that up to six gross monthly rents is also permissible, and that a higher deposit than that is allowed only where the landlord has a special security interest, judged on the rent level, the tenant's creditworthiness, and the condition and furnishing of the flat, as of August 2026. There is no statutory ceiling as such: the Arbeiterkammer notes that six gross monthly rents is the benchmark the courts have settled on rather than a figure written into the act.

The deposit is security, not the landlord's money. It must be held separately from the landlord's own assets, for example on a savings book, and returned with interest at the tenancy's end less justified claims for unpaid rent or damage. If a landlord withholds it without cause, the Mietervereinigung (the tenants' association), the Arbeiterkammer, or the district court (Bezirksgericht) are the escalation route.

Who pays the estate agent in Austria?

In most rentals you now pay no agent fee at all. The "whoever orders, pays" rule for agent commission (Bestellerprinzip) took effect for rental apartments on 1 July 2023, so the commission falls on the party that first commissioned the agent, according to oesterreich.gv.at and the Arbeiterkammer as of August 2026. Because landlords almost always instruct an agent to find a tenant, the fee sits with the landlord and cannot be passed on or split. The rule covers residential lettings only, not purchases or commercial space.

A tenant owes commission only where they gave the agent a genuine search brief as the first client, for a flat not already on that agent's books. For a renter used to markets where the incoming tenant pays a month or two of rent in agent fees, this is the single largest saving in the Austrian system.

How much can your rent rise in 2026?

For a regulated flat, barely at all. The increase is now capped well below inflation. Austria's rent indexation act (Mieten-Wertsicherungsgesetz, MieWeG) has been in force since 1 January 2026, and no rent could be raised under an indexation clause before April 2026, per the Arbeiterkammer. For flats in the MRG full-application tier, whose rent runs on the guideline-value or category systems, it may rise by at most 1% in 2026 and 2% in 2027, even where measured inflation is higher, with the general formula of 3% plus half of any excess only applying from 2028, according to the consumer portal konsumentenfragen.at as of August 2026.

The Richtwert (guideline value) is the statutory base rent per square metre, set separately for each province, that anchors older MRG-covered flats. New values took effect on 1 April 2026 and now adjust yearly rather than every two years, with Vienna's guideline value rising from €6.67 to €6.74 per square metre, the permitted 1%, per the Mietervereinigung and the Mieterschutzverband as of August 2026. In the free-market and partial-application tiers, an index clause follows the same MieWeG ceiling: inflation up to 3% passes through in full, only half of anything above, and the adjustment may only take effect on 1 April. So a regulated mid-tenancy hike is capped low by law and anything above it is challengeable, while in the free tier only your contract's index clause and the MieWeG cap protect you.

How long is your lease, and how do you leave early?

Most private Austrian tenancies are fixed-term, and the minimum term just got longer. A fixed-term lease (befristeter Mietvertrag) signed or extended from 1 January 2026 must run at least five years, up from three, unless the landlord can show they are not acting as a business, in which case three years still stands, according to the consumer portal konsumentenfragen.at and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber on the 2026 rental package. A private owner letting a single flat will usually qualify for the three-year floor, so read the term you are offered rather than assuming five. If a fixed term simply lapses and you stay on, the lease renews once, for five years under the new rules, and only becomes open-ended after that.

The exit rules favour the tenant. On a fixed-term lease you may give notice once the first year has run (three months to the end of a month), so you are never locked in for the full term. An open-ended (unbefristet) lease in an MRG-covered flat is the strongest position of all: the landlord can only terminate through the court, on a statutory ground such as sustained non-payment or serious misuse. This court-only protection is the Kündigungsschutz that older tenancies are prized for.

Vienna is where these rules bite hardest, as Austria's deepest rental market. The median asking rent on Seeki.eu's live Vienna apartment listings is €22.0 per square metre a month, roughly €1,320 for a typical 60 square metre flat, as of July 2026. For how those rents sit against the rest of the continent, see our ranking of rental yields across Europe, and for the regional view, what €1,000 a month rents across Central Europe.

Where does Austrian law favour the landlord?

For all its tenant-friendly reputation, Austria hands landlords two structural advantages, both from the same root: most tenancies never reach the protected tier. A large share of newer stock sits under partial application or full exemption, where the rent is free with no Richtwert ceiling, so the headline caps do not apply to the flat a typical newcomer rents. And because most leases are time-limited, the court-only termination protection reaches only a minority of renters. The law offsets that with a mandatory 25% fixed-term discount (Befristungsabschlag) on the permissible rent, but only in the full-application tier, where a landlord may charge just 75% of the rent an open-ended lease would allow, per the Mietervereinigung as of August 2026. That is compensation for weaker security, not a substitute, and in the partial-application tier there is no discount at all.

The honest balance: an open-ended lease in a pre-1953 period building (Altbau) puts you under some of the most protective rent and eviction law in Europe, while a newer fixed term, the common case, gets you notice rights but not the cap or the security. If you are weighing buying instead, our Buying Property in Austria as a Foreigner (2026 Guide) covers the purchase side. But if you are renting, read the draft for the construction year and the word "befristet" before you assume which protection is yours.

Frequently asked questions

How much deposit can a landlord charge in Austria?

Three months' gross rent is customary and up to six gross monthly rents is permissible, according to oesterreich.gv.at as of August 2026, where gross means net rent plus operating costs plus VAT. Above six, a landlord needs a special security interest, judged on the rent level, creditworthiness, or furnishings. The deposit must be held separately from the landlord's own assets and returned with interest at the tenancy's end, less justified claims.

Do tenants pay the estate agent in Austria?

Usually not. Since the "whoever orders, pays" rule (Bestellerprinzip) took effect for rentals on 1 July 2023, the commission is paid by whoever first commissioned the agent, and because landlords almost always instruct the agent, the fee sits with the landlord, per oesterreich.gv.at. A tenant owes it only in the rare case where they gave the agent their own search brief for a flat not already listed by that agent.

How much can my rent go up in 2026?

For a regulated flat, very little. Under the rent indexation act (Mieten-Wertsicherungsgesetz) in force since 1 January 2026, full-application rents may rise by at most 1% in 2026 and 2% in 2027, per konsumentenfragen.at, even when inflation is higher. Free-market rents with an index clause follow the general cap: inflation up to 3% passes fully, only half of any excess above, and the increase can only take effect on 1 April.

Which buildings does the MRG cover?

The Mietrechtsgesetz applies in full to rental flats built before 1 July 1953, rented condos from before 9 May 1945, and subsidised or municipal flats, according to the Arbeiterkammer. Newer privately financed buildings fall under partial application, where only termination and fixed-term rules apply and the rent is free. One- and two-family houses, holiday flats and service flats are fully exempt.

How do I find a rent-regulated flat in Vienna before it is gone?

Regulated period flats (Altbau) let quickly, so timing beats luck. On Seeki.eu you can filter Vienna apartments to rent, save that search, and get a daily alert of new matches, putting fresh listings in front of you the morning they appear. Pair that with a check of the building's construction year and the word "befristet" in the draft, and you can move on a rent-capped flat before someone still refreshing the map.

Sources

Rechecked in August 2026. The deposit and agent-commission rules come from the Austrian federal administration's citizen portal oesterreich.gv.at, which sets three gross monthly rents as customary, six as permissible, and anything above that as conditional on a special security interest, with the Arbeiterkammer, the statutory chamber of labour, adding that six is a benchmark from case law rather than a figure in the act. The commission rule is the "whoever orders, pays" principle (Bestellerprinzip) introduced for residential lettings on 1 July 2023 and explained by the same two bodies.

The scope tiers of the tenancy act (Mietrechtsgesetz) follow the Arbeiterkammer's guidance on full application, partial application and full exemption, including the building dates of 1 July 1953 and 9 May 1945 and the exclusion of one- and two-family houses, holiday flats, service flats and care-home places.

The rent caps come from the rent indexation act (Mieten-Wertsicherungsgesetz) enacted with the fifth inflation-relief act for tenancy law (5. Mietrechtliches Inflationslinderungsgesetz), in force since 1 January 2026, as set out by the federal consumer information portal konsumentenfragen.at and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, and by the Arbeiterkammer for the rule that no indexation clause could raise rent before April 2026. The guideline values (Richtwerte) effective 1 April 2026, including Vienna's, are published by the Mietervereinigung Österreichs and the Mieterschutzverband. The fixed-term rules, the five-year minimum and its exception for landlords not acting as a business, the single renewal, the tenant's right to give three months' notice after the first year, and the 25% fixed-term discount in the full-application tier are drawn from the same act and from the Mietervereinigung.

Rents and thresholds change and the tier your flat falls into decides which of these rules reach you. Confirm your own position with a tenancy lawyer or a tenants' association before you sign or dispute anything.