Who can get a Wohn-Ticket?
You must meet all of these requirements:
- You are at least 18 years old.
- You are an Austrian, EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, a recognised refugee, or hold the 'Daueraufenthalt-EU' (long-term resident EU) permit. People who do not qualify include displaced persons from Ukraine with the Ausweis für Vertriebene and students on a student residence permit.
- You have had your main residence in Vienna for at least two years without interruption. Vienna counts, not one particular address, and gaps of up to seven days are allowed.
- There is no court termination of a past lease for intolerable behaviour or arrears, and you owe no rent in council housing.
- Your household income is below the limit. In 2026 that is €61,280 net a year for one person, €91,320 for two and €6,730 more for each additional person.
How does the bonus points system work?
For each flat, applicants are ranked by their bonus points and whoever has the most comes first. In a tie, what counts first is how often you have already applied without success, then the earliest application time. Most points depend on your current housing situation and lapse when you move. Each criterion counts once per household, and you must prove it. The main ones:
- Vienna bonus: points for every year from the sixth year of main residence in Vienna, at most 45.
- Long waiting time: up to 45 points after five years of active searching with at least 100 login days a year.
- Jungwiener (young Viennese): 50 points if you are under 25, have no main lease of your own and move in as one or two people.
- Overcrowding: 50 points if you live as main tenant in a flat that is too small, for example three people in two rooms.
- Single parent: 30 points with a main lease of your own, 80 without.
- Training or further education of at least 20 hours a week: 20 points. Pregnancy: 30 points.
- Housing costs: 50 points if you have rented for two years and receive Wohnbeihilfe or Mietbeihilfe.
- Threatened loss of your home: 30 points if your fixed term ends within six months and will not be extended, 80 points for a court notice because the landlord needs the flat for themselves.
- Domestic violence or wheelchair use: 100 points.
Step by step to a council flat
- Register your household at meinwohnticket.wien and upload the documents: photo ID, proof of legal residence for non-EU citizens, birth certificate, current proof of income and your lease, no older than six months.
- Wohnberatung Wien checks your details and issues the Wohn-Ticket. Bonus points only count once they have been checked.
- You only see flats that fit your household size and whose rent is at most half your household income. You apply for those.
- If you are first in line, you get an offer, view the flat and sign the lease with Wiener Wohnen.
- Confirm or update your details at least every 12 months, or the ticket lapses. After getting a flat through the Wohn-Ticket you cannot apply for a new one for three years.
What does a council flat cost?
The landlord is the City of Vienna itself, so there is no agent's commission. For the new council flats ('Gemeindebau NEU') you pay no own funds and no deposit, and the leases are open-ended. Other council flats are usually let open-ended too.
The rent follows the Tenancy Act and is usually well below the private market, where the median gross rent is currently €22.2 per m² (as of 27 October 2026). The exact rent is in the offer. If it is too much for you, the Wohnbeihilfe housing allowance can help.
I already had a Wohn-Ticket. What now?
Wohn-Tickets with a 'justified housing need' from the old system were only valid until autumn 2026. You have to register again at meinwohnticket.wien. There is a start bonus for this: 5 points, or 10, 20, 30 or 45 points if your old ticket had been valid for at least two, three, four or five years at the start. You can use it with a new application until 31 December 2026.
Tips that help
- Keep your main residence in Vienna without a break. A gap of more than seven days restarts the two years, and the Vienna bonus depends on uninterrupted years.
- Only state what you can prove. False information about the requirements blocks the ticket for three years, false bonus points for six months.
- Log in regularly and keep applying for suitable flats: only years with at least 100 login days count for the waiting-time points, and unsuccessful applications help in a tie.
- Keep searching privately at the same time. Even with many points you can't know when an offer will come.
- Wohnberatung Wien answers questions on 01 24 111.