The heart of the Mayor of Vienna is in the right place – he has real sympathy for those in need: The answer to a municipal council request from the FPÖ now revealed that the City of Vienna has reduced the rent of one of its most prominent and at the same time not always economically successful tenants quite significantly – the Federal SPÖ in Löwelstraße only has to pay 12,000 euros rent per month, in 2017 it was 13,600 euros.
A bargain price for the nicely located office space next to the Burgtheater, and Pamela Rendi-Wagner and her chief strategists don’t really have to feel cramped on 3,181 square meters. Then come real estate experts at a square meter price of 3.77 euros per month. Well, a Viennese family with two children for 100 square meters pays a little more, namely 17.21 euros per square meter or 1721 euros per month.
And what Pamela Rendi-Wagner and her red management staff gets from the city of Vienna and thus from the taxpayer for 12,000 euros, other tenants would have to pay significantly more for it according to the real estate price index in the 1st district: 21.95 euros is currently the rent for the square meter in 1010 Vienna, so the Federal SPÖ would have to be charged 69,822 euros per month for their 3181 square meters – but the party leader has to transfer 57,822.95 euros less per month to the landlord, the City of Vienna. The federal party saves 693,875.40 euros per year with the rental bonus of the Viennese comrades at this top address…
Incidentally, the reason for the rent reduction from 13,600 euros to 12,000 euros from 2017 is that the rooms in the palace on Löwelstrasse were remeasured. However, that already took place in 2004/2005.
With its request, the Viennese FPÖ uncovered this red initiative against the painful inflation. Municipal Councilor Stefan Berger: “It is a scandal that the SPÖ pays a penny rent for their party headquarters in the middle of the first district. This unsavory procedure not only shows the shamelessness of the comrades, but should now be fully clarified. It cannot be that only the SPÖ has a downward valorization.”
Incidentally, in 2021 the federal SPÖ received quite considerable party funding of 6.74 million euros in tax money.