Information about buying property in Tirol Austria.

Buying in Tirol and Vorarlberg is possible, but the authorities do restrict the numbers of properties which can be bought as second or holiday homes.

It is important that you understand the position

Please read the information below the picture.

Ellmau

Everyone loves Tirol.

European citizens have the absolute right under the Treaty of Rome to buy and live permanently in any house they wish. That does not apply to holiday property. European law overrides local laws in the member states but does not override local planning laws.

Farms and farmland are excluded from this and are reserved for Austrian farmers.

Therefore, you need to understand that each of the nine independent provinces of Austria is self governing. Buying property in Upper Austria, Steiermark or Salzburg province is much easier than buying in Tirol. The reason is, that the "Grundverkehrsbehörde" in Tirol is the most difficult of the provinces when it comes to getting approval for 'holiday use' or as they call it here 'Zweitwohnsitz' so that you can use the property as a holiday home. The Grundverkehrsbehörde has to approve each and every purchase even if they are Austrian.

We have made numerous visits to Tirol armed with a list of estate agents there, and we have pounded the pavements in many Tirolean towns and villages and had discussions with lots of estate agents. Our findings are, that the further west you go - towards the Arlberg - the more difficult it gets. The agents there tell us that although there are a few holiday properties in St Anton and a few in Seefeld, that on the rare occasions that these properties come onto the market they are sold privately by their owners and the agents are rarely involved. This explains why the estate agents in western Tirol trade from very small offices (usually in their private homes), as they simply do not have enough property on their books to merit the expense of an office neither do any of them have a website worth looking at.

The situation lower down the Inntal is a bit better, so let us just enlighten you.

First of all Kitzbühel. There about twenty estate agents in Kitzbühel and we have visited most of them. The majority seem to handle nothing but expensive properties with inflated seven figure price tags. (The sort of places that would have appealed to the taste of Saddam Hussein). We spent a whole day around Kitzbühel, St Johann in Tirol and general area and found only one holiday apartment for sale all day which would have been in the right price bracket and location for any of our customers. This means that Kitzbühel is simply not a workable option for us. In any case, the cost of food, general shopping, clothes and everything else is 30% more expensive there, and Austria has far better ski resorts than Kitzbühel !

So, we sometimes have a few offerings in Kitzbühl but is is difficult.

Things are a bit better in the Zillertal, Soll, Scheffau, Kufstein, Hopfgarten, Worgl etc,

Therefore, we are currently able to offer you some properties around this region and we work with very professional and capable agents who will guide you through the various requirements to enable you to buy property there.

In general, there isn't much available so if you like the look of what we have on offer - get in quickly rather than be disappointed.