First Vienna Residential Market Report | 2018

UPPER CLASS

THE NEW CENTRE

ESTABLISHED

POSTMATERIALISTS

NEW MIDDLE CLASS

ADAPTIVE-PRAGMATISTS

The performance-oriented elite with a strong anchorage in tradition – strongly focused on status, exclusiveness, responsibility, and leadership. Furnishings often skilfully combine tradition and modernity with a keen sense of style, placing value on outward appearance expressing distinction and connoisseurship.

Open-minded social critics – intellectual, educated milieu, interested in variegated aspects of culture; cosmopolitan orientation, but critical towards globalisation; socially commited. Home styles are dominated by a sense of nature and authenticity while eschewing ostentatious- ness and excess. Distinction from the mainstream and conventionalism plays a crucial role in this social group.

The adaptive mainstream– seeking professional and social establishment, secure and harmonic circumstances, support and orientation, peace and a slow pace. Members of this group prefer conventional or neo-rustic aesthetics in a friendly, yet dignified outward appearance without stylistic extravagance; order and cleanliness are paramount.

The young pragmatic middle stratum – pronounced life- pragmatism, strong desire for anchorage, membership, security, performance orientation, but also the wish for fun and entertainment. The prevailing lifestyle is either trendy or quiet and down-to-earth, practical and expedient.

THE MODERN LOWER CLASS

HIGH ACHIEVERS

DIGITAL INDIVIDUALISTS

CONSUMPTION ORIENTED

ESCAPISTS

The flexible and globally oriented performance elite – individual performance, efficiency, and success take top priority; competent in business and IT. Home styles reflect a penchant for open, spacious interior designs with a view to outward appearance and making a statement in a lifestyle reflecting contemporary attitudes.

The individualistic, networking, digital avant-garde – men- tally and geographically mobile, cross-linked online and offline, permanently looking for new experiences. The home is creatively designed with deliberately unconventio- nal highlights while integrating elements reflecting a sense of ironic conventionalism to showcase non-conformism.

The materialistic lower class striving for participation – sense of discrimination, resentments, and pronounced fears of the future; striving to stay connected with the consumption standards of the middle class. This group displays a yearning for wealth, luxury, and prestige, often with demonstrative shows of modern technology in an attempt to showcase an intact middle-class home.

The modern lower middle class, living for the excitement of the moment – seeking fun and amusement; rejection of traditional standards and conventions. The aesthetic of heavy stimuli dominates with a zest for provocation and challenging taboos. Convenience plays a major role – everything within easy reach for an easy-going life.