“I am so happy that I was able to get hold of a council flat. My monthly income is not enough to rent a two-room apartment on the open market. You have to know the cost of a council flat is about half as much as the rent for an ordinary apartment.
Still, it’s not easy to get one. In the beginning, I had to go to the authorities again and again to comply with the various requirements. In the end, it took several months before I got an apartment. So this requires patience.“
The first council flats in the two-million strong city of Vienna were built a hundred years ago. There are now 220,000 such apartments in the city housing 500,000 residents. Edit Gyimesi, 57, has lived in a council flat for three years.
