Press
Tyrol has had enough of investors and wants to strengthen agriculture and locals. A new law is supposed to help, but the communities see themselves at a disadvantage.
Tyrol – The Tyrolean government wants to adapt the so-called “Land Traffic Act”, which regulates the purchase and sale of agricultural land and real estate. The changes to the law will primarily strengthen the rights and opportunities of locals and farmers, also to provide them with a better basis for their businesses. A central element of the change is the municipalities' right to have a say in the acquisition of property by EU foreigners.
“Selling out Tyrol”: Austria is putting a stop to buyers from Germany – farmers should be strengthened
More and more holiday resorts are currently confronted with mass tourism and are fighting back. In Amsterdam, for example, it has just been decided that no more new hotels are allowed to be built. In Venice, tourists have to pay an entrance fee. In the Canary Islands, locals protested against a “sell-out”, and now it’s happening in Tyrol too.
With the change in May, the Austrian municipality in question should now also be included in decision-making when non-EU citizens purchase real estate. You have the right to be heard and to lodge a complaint. The Chamber of Agriculture supports the new measures and at the same time pushes for the creation of an independent control body in the state in order to prevent a possible “sell-out of Tyrol”. In 2012, this function, the “state transport officer”, was abolished. He could review the authorities' decisions.
As the Tyrolean daily newspaper reports, one reason for the demand for stricter guidelines is pressure from southern German and northern Italian investors. The President of the Chamber of Agriculture, Josef Hechenberger, told the newspaper: “Not a week goes by when there are not inquiries about farms for sale.” According to the ÖVP National Council, this must be prevented: “Ultimately, in the national cultural interest, it is about maintaining widespread agriculture.”
Foreigners want to buy lots of farms in Austria
The trend of buying property abroad is increasing, as figures show. In 2020, 44 buyers from the EU or EEA purchased rural properties, in 2019 there were 43, according to the Austrian newspaper. But agricultural hospitality in general is also declining – more than 100 farms will have been abandoned in 2023. If this happens, other farmers can first make priority offers to take over the farm.
Communities see themselves at a disadvantage
While farmers benefit from the new regulations, not everyone is enthusiastic about them. The communities see themselves as being excluded from this process. Mayor Karl-Josef Schubert: “The communities often need agricultural and forestry land as exchange areas, for infrastructure and settlement projects that are in the public interest, to avoid conflicts of use or for other spatial planning needs.” (jh)
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