Austria, the land of detached houses

A census of buildings and dwellings (GWZ) was taken in Austria in 2001. It revealed that 47 per cent (1.809 mio) of the 3.863 mio dwellings recorded were detached houses. The significance of the occupants of detached houses with gardens as shoppers in DIY superstores has been acknowledged for some time already, but it can now be assumed that these occupants of detached houses on average spend about three times as much on products specific to DIY and garden stores than those living in blocks of flats. Regional sales potential can now be calculated more realistically with the help of this data from the GWZ 2001. However, a distinction must be made between main and secondary residences (14 per cent share) with regard to the level of spend.
The distribution of these residences in detached houses across the political regions shows distinctive, densely populated areas (red, dark blue and light blue), which can chiefly be found in the environs of seven provincial capitals. Whereas only a few detached houses can be found within these relatively big cities, the city of Vienna is a very special case. In the 22nd district on the far side of the Danube alone there are around 17 000 residences in detached houses. The number of residences in detached houses in the other typical suburbs comes to no more than between 5 000 and 10 000, or even fewer than 5 000. In the “blank” inner-city districts there are on the whole fewer than 50 residences in detached houses.
In 2001 Vienna had approx. 771 000 households, to which only 346 00 households were added from the 10 districts of the extended environs. Seventy-eight per cent of the residences in detached houses are to be found in the extended environs. In the city of Vienna overall, 91 per cent of the dwellings are located in blocks of flats. Correspondingly, almost half of the DIY market potential (€ 591 mio) calculated on the basis of the housing situation comes from the environs. The DIY stores are also chiefly to be found in these surrounding districts (62 per cent), and the greater part of the retail floorspace as well (60 per cent). The gross sales of the DIY stores in 2004, estimated at € 614 mio, have a 51 per cent share of the market potential for the DIY sector overall in the district of Vienna and environs.
Graz, Austria’s second-largest city with 110 000 households, and the three surrounding districts with a high density of detached houses, together account for around 214 000 households. Seventy-eight per cent of the…