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Vienna: Getting housing right

Are there lessons to be learnt from the way Vienna builds public housing? Chris Bowlby reports from the Austrian capital.

Affordable housing is in widespread crisis. Many cities around the world have failed to build enough houses with good design and make living in them affordable – whether rented or bought. This effects millions, especially young people. One place which seems to have a far better record is Vienna. Rents are modest, the housing is high quality, there’s a good social mix with new estates designed with everyone in mind. So how has the City achieved this? And with pressures like a growing right to buy ethos, how sustainable all this in the face of future challenges? While the great Social Democratic tradition that Vienna’s housing embodies seems to have faded or disappeared across much of Europe, here it seems to have thrived. Is Vienna’s housing dream a one-off, or can it be a place everywhere else can learn from?

Reporter: Chris Bowlby
Producer: Jim Frank

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27 minutes

Last on

Sun 9 Apr 2023 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 6 Apr 2023 01:32GMT
  • Thu 6 Apr 2023 08:32GMT
  • Thu 6 Apr 2023 12:32GMT
  • Thu 6 Apr 2023 19:06GMT
  • Sun 9 Apr 2023 11:32GMT
  • Sun 9 Apr 2023 18:32GMT

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