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Land · Bregenz and the Rhine valley

Buying land in Bregenz and the Rhine valley

Land here costs more than in almost any other Austrian provincial capital: 1,264 euros per square metre in the city, above Innsbruck and beaten only by Salzburg. Twenty kilometres inland in the Bregenzerwald it is 203. Both figures sit inside the same political district.

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Meadow in flower at the edge of Hard in the Rhine valley, with the Mittelweiherburg manor behind
böhringer friedrich · CC BY-SA 2.5

What may be built here?

Vorarlberg keeps the zoning plans of every municipality plot by plot and writes them out in plain words rather than codes. Enter an address and you see the zoning class together with the plan reference and the legal note that belongs to it. How far that goes is shown by an example from Bregenz: next to "core area" stands the permitted retail floor space to the square metre, including the cap for groceries.

  • Residential, core, commercial or open land: the class decides whether anything may be built at all.
  • The plan reference (BW, BK-E8, BB-I) is the code under which the municipality files the plan.
  • The legal note names conditions that never appear in a listing, such as capped retail space.
  • The provincial service covers every municipality in the Rhine valley, not just the city.
Check the zoning of an address →

What building land costs here

Statistik Austria evaluates purchase contracts for undeveloped building land. For the town of Bregenz that is 1,264 euros per square metre. The political district of Bregenz, by contrast, comes to 544, and that gap is the real information: the district reaches up into the Bregenzerwald and spans 121 to 1,264 euros. A district average says nothing about a single municipality here.

Bregenz

€ 1.264/m²

Municipalities in the Rhine valley

Statistics Austria, average property prices, as of 2025. Average prices from purchase contracts, 2025 edition. Unlike in Carinthia the official source reports a figure for every single municipality here, none of the 37 is missing. What a particular plot costs also depends on zoning, utilities, slope and how high the horizon stands to the south.

Current plots

These plots are currently available in Bregenz and the Rhine valley.

There is currently no plot in Vorarlberg that has passed our quality check. The market is new with us and the stock grows with every provider who joins. The price table above stands independently of that: it comes from official statistics, not from our own stock.

What matters when buying land

Zoning comes first

Whether and how high you may build is decided by the zoning plan, not by the seller. Green land stays green land, even if the listing says "expected building land": a planned rezoning is a hope, not a building right.

Utilities connected or not

Water, sewage, electricity and access cost money when they are missing. Some municipalities charge five-figure development contributions. Ask before you negotiate the price, not after.

What the plan says about size

Buildable area, building class and construction type limit what fits on the square metres. A large plot with low density often carries less house than a smaller one in a higher building class.

Budget for the extras

On top of the price come 3.5 per cent land transfer tax and 1.1 per cent land register fee, plus the contract and, if an agent is involved, their commission. On a plot of 400,000 euros that is roughly 25,000 to 40,000 euros.

The ground itself

Slope, groundwater and contamination make foundations more expensive. A soil survey before the purchase is cheaper than a surprise in the pit.

Frequently asked questions

What does a building plot in Bregenz cost?

Statistik Austria reports 1,264 euros per square metre for the town of Bregenz, 2025 edition, from purchase contracts. That is the second highest among the cities we hold data for, after Salzburg at 1,345 and ahead of Innsbruck at 1,051. The political district of Bregenz comes to 544 because it carries the Bregenzerwald with it.

Where is land cheapest in the Rhine valley?

In the Bregenzerwald. Doren stands at 203 euros per square metre, Lingenau at 213, Eichenberg at 305, Andelsbuch at 335. On the valley floor it starts at around 670 (Hohenems), and on the lake shore Lochau reaches 1,165. The factor between the most and the least expensive place in the market is therefore six.

Where do I get the zoning for a plot in Vorarlberg?

The province keeps the zoning plans of all municipalities in its own service and publishes them in plain words, with the plan reference and the legal note. Our zoning tool queries exactly that service, so you only need the address. The binding document remains the municipality's plan.

Why does the horizon matter for a plot in the Rhine valley?

Because you cannot change it afterwards. On the valley floor the southern horizon is low at 1 to 8 degrees, but the Pfänder rises in the east and reaches 15.7 degrees from the centre of Bregenz: that costs morning sun, not midday sun. It gets serious further south where the valley narrows. In Hohenems the horizon stands 29.6 degrees high to the south-east; in Feldkirch-Tisis the southern horizon at 22.1 degrees is above the winter sun of 19.1 degrees. We calculate this from the terrain model, not from the listing text.

What extra costs come on top?

On top of the price come 3.5 per cent land transfer tax and 1.1 per cent land register fee, plus the contract and, where an agent is involved, their commission. Municipal development contributions can add further five-figure amounts and belong before the price negotiation. For a plot of 500 square metres in Bregenz the land alone comes to roughly 630,000 euros.

Nothing suitable?

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