Austrian Building Societies: New Contracts Hit a 10-Year Low
412,000 new contracts in 2025 — the lowest reading since 2015. The industry association and the FMA discuss adjustments to the premium model.
Austria's Bausparkassen — building societies — signed only 412,000 new contracts in 2025, the lowest level since 2015 and a 17.8% drop year on year. The numbers come from the annual report of the Bausparkasse industry association published on Sunday, 24 May 2026. The locked-in savings volume is also falling, at EUR 21.9 billion currently, down from EUR 23.4 billion at end-2024.
What the data shows
Several structural factors sit behind the decline. The state building-savings bonus was cut to 1.5% in 2024 — applied to a maximum annual base of EUR 1,200, that delivers a bonus of at most EUR 18 a year. Against call deposit rates of 2.0-2.75% at direct banks, the model looks hardly attractive to younger savers. On top, taking out a Bausparvertrag locks the saver in for six years.
The chair of the association, Manuela Auer, said the business model faced "a serious stress test". The trade association had opened talks with the finance ministry in the spring to consider raising the bonus to 2.5% and broadening the base to EUR 1,800. A decision was possible as part of the autumn budget bill.
What it means
For existing customers, little changes in the short term. The roughly 3.9 million active building-savings contracts run on unchanged, and deposit insurance of EUR 100,000 per customer remains in place. The Bausparkassen — Raiffeisen Bausparkasse, Wüstenrot, the savings-banks-owned s Bausparkasse and ABV — are all solidly capitalised, meeting the CRR requirements comfortably.
Structurally, however, the numbers signal a problem. Bausparkassen have historically been Austria's most important medium-term savings vehicle for low- and middle-income households. If the vehicle loses appeal, savings flow either to direct-bank call deposits, to ETF savings plans, or nowhere at all — the last would be problematic for wealth-building in the bottom half of the income distribution.
From the FMA's perspective, the situation is orderly but worth watching. Head of supervision Helmut Ettl told an industry event last week that the Bausparkassen are "operationally stable", and that the issue is more "a question of business and tax policy".
What happens next
The trade association is due to present its reform proposals by end-June 2026. The finance ministry has set up a working group that is also examining models from other EU countries — particularly Germany's Wohnungsbauprämie, raised to 10% in 2024 but operating under tighter income limits.
A decision on possible adjustments is expected as part of the 2027 budget bill, due to go before the Council of Ministers in October 2026. In parallel, the FMA is in discussions with the four Bausparkassen on product-side changes — shorter lock-in periods or hybrid products with an ETF component, already offered in Germany.
Sources: Bausparkassen industry association — annual report 2025 · FMA quarterly report Q1 2026 · Finance ministry press release on the building-savings bonus