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LIVING IN AUSTRIA

Vienna ranked top for quality of life… but ‘world’s least friendly city’

Vienna regularly tops global surveys for quality of life, but a new ranking based on what foreign residents think of their cities reveals it as one of the hardest places in the world to feel at home and make friends.

Published: 1 December 2021 11:49 CET
Updated: 5 December 2021 09:00 CET
Vienna on rainy evening
Vienna offers a great quality of life, but poses challenges for foreigners trying to settle there, according to the survey. Photo: Pierre Blaché/Unsplash

The Expat City Ranking by InterNations, based on a survey with more than 12,000 respondents in 57 cities around the world, saw Vienna ranked as the 14th best city for expats. 

In particular, its quality of transportation, local leisure options, and affordability and quality of healthcare received high scores, earning it a number 1 rating for Quality of Urban Living, keeping up a five-year streak of being in the top ten for this category.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about Vienna’s cheap annual metro pass

“In terms of aspects like green spaces, noise levels, and eco-friendly architecture, Vienna is hard to beat,” said the survey, noting that 94 percent of those surveyed were positive about the urban environment, compared to 71 percent globally.

One Swedish expat told the survey: “Vienna is a fantastic place. The streets and air are clean. People are friendly and polite. It’s historical, safe for women (and everyone), with lots of things to do after work.”

Respondents were asked about five areas: Quality of Urban Living, Getting Settled, Urban Work Life, Finance & Housing, and Local Cost of Living. Only cities with at least 50 responses were included in the survey ranking.

Vienna also scored positively on working life, receiving top ten scores for job security and work-life balance, and ranking 12th out of 57 for local cost of living.

READ ALSO: 11 life hacks to help you feel like a local in Vienna

High rankings for quality of life are par for the course in Vienna, which spent three years in the top spot of the Global Liveability Index by the British Economist group, only tumbling down to 12th spot last year due to the impact of the pandemic on both healthcare access and cultural offerings.

It was the area of ‘Getting Settled’ that pulled down Vienna’s ranking in the InterNations survey. In this category, it ranked 50th out of 57 countries. That ranking came from a score of 44th in ‘Feeling Welcome’, 45th for ‘Friends and Socialising’, 44 for ‘Local Language’ and 57th — the worst of every country included in the survey — for ‘Local Friendliness’. Almost half of people surveyed said it was hard to make new friends in the city, a total of 44 percent compared to 32 percent globally.

Vienna joined four other German-speaking cities in the bottom ten for Getting Settled: Hamburg, Munich, Zurich and Dusseldorf. The majority of Viennese expats (54 percent) said they struggled with learning German and 28 percent said it was difficult to get by without it.

Overall,  around two in five foreign residents in Vienna (43 percent, compared to 16 percent globally) said locals were generally unfriendly and the figure was almost as high when asked if locals were generally friendly to foreign residents (39 percent, compared to 18 percent globally).

Member comments

  1. You may want to update your article to say Austria instead of Vienna, since the survey on Internations mentions the country and not the city.

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RENTING

Can I get out of a rental contract in Austria?

Have you viewed an apartment in Vienna o elsewhere in Austria and hastily signed a contract? Don't you like the apartment after all? These are your withdrawal rights in Austria.

Published: 23 April 2024 17:24 CEST
Can I get out of a rental contract in Austria?

In Austria, the rental market is highly competitive, with apartments often staying on rental platforms for short periods due to high demand and limited supply. This, coupled with brief apartment visits (sometimes with other prospective tenants) and the pressure to secure a place, can lead to hasty contract signings. 

Understanding your withdrawal rights is essential in such a market.

READ ALSO: Renting in Austria – The key things foreign residents need to know

If you signed a rental contract and then realised you don’t want the place, you might feel stuck in your contract. Austria does have really strict rules on contracts, so that “anyone who signs a rental offer makes a binding declaration that they wish to rent the apartment at a certain rate”, Austria’s Tenants Association says.

The real estate agent will also remind you that you cannot leave your contract, as you signed a contractual agreement (“verbindliches Angebot“, which means a binding offer). But what exactly are your rights then?

It’s all about timing

Basically it’s very tricky and almost impossible to back out after signing a rental contact in Austria.

According to Austria’s Chamber of Labour (AK), Austrian law is on your side – but only in a particular case. 

Under a consumer law that applies to all types of contracts, including rental agreements, you are protected against potential pressure from real estate agents and property owners. If you view an apartment and sign an agreement on the same day, you have the right to withdraw from the contract within the week. Furthermore, if the estate agent fails to inform you of your right to cancel, you can withdraw from the contract within one month.

READ ALSO: Shopping in Austria – What are your consumer rights when purchasing goods?

The Tenants Association is more critical and explains that withdrawal is only possible within the “narrow” limits of the Consumer Protection Act. “If you as a consumer submit your contractual declaration on the same day that you viewed the apartment for the first time, you can withdraw from your contractual declaration in writing within one week.”

If the offer was not signed on the day of the very first viewing, though, there is no right of withdrawal in Austria.

READ ALSO: Tenant or landlord – Who pays which costs in Austria?

If you have the right to do so, the most effective way to withdraw from a rental contract is to do it in writing, preferably by a registered letter, as explained by the Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK). This not only provides a clear record of your intent but also empowers you to navigate the legal aspects of the process with confidence. 

If you signed the offer after the viewing, you don’t have the right to withdraw from the contract you signed. In that case, you could ask for a mutual agreement termination, seeking an amicable termination option with the landlord. Otherwise, you’d be bound by the contract, which in Austria usually means you’d have to stay for one year in the apartment and give three months’ notice before leaving.

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