NEU
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Vienna | Inner City
Flexibility counters recession – ways to trigger a revival
can’t ignore a downturn, you need to look for new perspectives. Flexibility is the magic word here. The real problem is not older spaces but older and outdated concepts. Innovation must definitely come from investors who, for example, use some of the upper floors for housing, offices or hotels, or maybe even sport concepts or production facilities. Another important point is that the responsible authorities and legal regulations shouldn’t hinder, but facilitate these changes – a shift to another branch or use is a perfectly normal development. The worst possible strategy from an economic and ecological perspective is to risk vacancies and produce the space required for other uses through new construction with high resource consumption and ground sealing.
Mr. Lindner: As a location expert, aren’t you mainly involved with grief counselling right now? Hannes Lindner: No, of course not. Obviously, these are challenging times but there is really no need for doomsday prophesies. Vacan- cies are not going to explode, rent levels will decline slightly in many cases but certainly not crash, and alternative uses can almost always be found for properties that are no longer fit for retail. And we still have a large group of international concepts looking to set up a base in Austria. I don’t expect 2024 will be easy, but also don’t see any unsolvable problems from a structural standpoint. Only a few months after the kika/Leiner ban- kruptcy which involved hundreds of thousands of square metres of space, that almost sounds relaxed. I don’t want to downplay the situation, but kika/Leiner shows that we are facing prob- lems and not a complete disaster. The pro- perties were sold quickly, and I am convinced that most of them will soon find very attracti- ve uses. This situation also shows that you
Hannes Lindner Managing Partner Standort + Markt Beratungsges.m.b.H.
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