When it comes to the recent Salzburg state election – it was all about the rents.

This week’s regional vote saw the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) come out of nowhere to take seats in the state parliament. Sitting at only 0.4 percent of the vote after the last Salzburg state election in 2018, the party shot up to take 11.7 percent of the vote on Sunday.

So where did they get that sudden rush of votes? A new data analysis by Der Standard finds that the Communist vote was strongly correlated with the places in the state that saw the highest rent increases since 2018. The party even reached 21.5 percent of the vote in Salzburg city.

Next to Salzburg city, it pulled in its strongest results in the areas surrounding Salzburg city, with all districts returning 13 percent of the vote for the Communists and higher.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why is finding housing in Salzburg so difficult?

It shows the vote for Austria’s Communist Party as partially a protest vote – at least for those who are deeply dissatisfied with the economic and living situation in Austria and are more left-leaning.

Austria’s fourth-largest city is a particularly acute example of the country’s housing crisis. Residents are spending around 44 percent of their average household income on rent. That’s up from around 36 percent in 2018. Local politicians have debated declaring a “housing emergency,” as Innsbruck has done.

READ ALSO: Is Salzburg going through a housing emergency?

Salzburg’s rent spike over the last five years – some 17.7 percent in the city itself and 16.2 percent in the surrounding area – is the biggest in the country. The city’s districts now have some of the highest overall rent prices in the country. Only a very few districts in Innsbruck and Vienna have higher rents.

Buying is less an option for many as well now, with the price per square metre in Salzburg city now up over €10,000. That puts the price of a 60 square metre flat in the state capital at around €600,000.

Salzburg has also fallen far short of its building targets in recent years, increasing price pressures. Despite the state’s target of 4,000 affordable housing units per year, only around 2,500 were built in 2022 – some 40 percent fewer than planned.

That’s a low for Austria, with only Carinthia building fewer homes since 2018 than Salzburg.