Trade sector · July 2026
Density low, the market is shrinking — check the causes before you invest. Density, 13-month trend and market movement for every federal state and 23 Vienna districts — recomputed monthly.
Active locations in Vienna
Shortest path to a decision: the three districts with the lowest number of Baumeister businesses per 10,000 inhabitants — on paper the largest market gaps in Vienna (for population ≥ 20,000).
Note: low density is a signal, not a guarantee. Combine it with the market movement above and the OSM visibility below before you commit.
The stock is shrinking noticeably since May 2025 (-4.0 % post method change). For founders the direction is a signal, but not the whole picture — low per-capita density can still spell opportunity if the remaining businesses are overloaded.
Method change May 2025. Before May 2025 the figures come from the annual report (reference-date based), from May 2025 on from the monthly OgdAufrechteGewerbeberechtigung snapshots. The two sources count slightly differently — hence the visible break between April and May 2025. For the churn indicator we use only the clean May-2025-plus window, so the calculation is not distorted by the method jump.
Seasonal fluctuations. Smaller month-to-month movements are normal — trade licences are issued in bursts (month turns, quarter ends) and deregistered (often at year ends). A single month at +5 or −3 is not a trend break.
What a line does not show. The stock is a stock, not a flow. 500 active trade licences at a steady monthly stock can mean: (a) 500 dormant businesses with no movement, or (b) 480 stable plus 20 deregistering this month and 20 newly registering. The churn indicator measures exactly that difference — the curve does not show it.
Why we don't go back further. The GISA dataset only exists in structured form from 2018, before that only as non-anonymised internal data. Annual reports from 2019 could theoretically be integrated — that is a planned expansion. Currently: monthly snapshots since March 2025.
Context
The Baumeister (master builder) is one of the most strictly regulated trades in Austria under GewO 1994 § 99. Registration requires a certificate of competence based on the Baumeister examination, which itself already presupposes prior qualifications (an HTL diploma in structural engineering, civil engineering or carpentry plus years of practical experience, or a degree in civil engineering). No Baumeister examination means no trade licence — this is the highest barrier to entry among the construction trades.
Unlike other construction sectors, the Baumeister is authorised to carry out end-to-end planning and execution — this covers architectural design, structural engineering (within limits), tendering, site management and construction. Around 6,000 Baumeister firms are active across Austria, roughly 1,400 of them in Vienna. The market is traditionally strong and is protected from price dumping by the high barriers to entry.
The building season (March to November) dominates; in winter most construction sites lie idle. January and February are the planning season — tenders are drawn up and contracts are awarded. Anyone registering in autumn has time for client acquisition and can start into spring with a full order book.
ÖNORM B 2110 is the de facto standard contract for construction work. It governs the payment schedule, warranty, liability and contractual penalties. Anyone who signs without an ÖNORM contract is in a considerably weaker position in the event of a dispute. Clients — public ones in particular — require it as standard.
Under the ABGB, a three-year warranty period applies to construction defects. Liability for hidden defects can run on for up to 30 years. Professional indemnity insurance for a Baumeister with a coverage sum of at least 1 million euros is effectively mandatory — without it you will not win any public contracts.
A Baumeister may carry out planning — but in cases that are structurally and technically complex, they share the market with Ziviltechniker:innen (a separate regulated profession). The dividing line is contentious in borderline cases (e.g. multi-storey residential construction). Before taking on such projects, it is advisable to consult the regional chamber (Landeskammer).
Regulated trade under GewO 1994 § 99. Gewerbeschlüssel 501. Contract standard: ÖNORM B 2110.
Insider analysis · Vienna
The typical active business in Vienna is 10 years old (median). 22 % are younger than 3 years, 28 % older than 20 years. Dominant legal form: 81.9 % registered companies.
Distribution of age in years across all 1,020 active locations. Median 10 years · P10–P90 1–35 years.
Bars = number of businesses per age-year bucket. Highlighted bar = median age. Small buckets under 5 businesses are suppressed as "·" (GDPR minimum cell size against re-identification).
When were the currently active businesses founded?
Solo (natural person) vs. registered company (GmbH, OG, KG, AG).
The higher the Gini index, the more the sector concentrates in a few postal-code areas. 0 = evenly distributed, 1 = everything in a single postal-code area. Vienna has 23 districts, which split into several postal-code areas.
Complementary signal
Our data shows how many businesses exist. Google Trends adds how often people search for “Baumeister” — the demand side. Together you see whether a market is constrained by supply or by demand.
Google Trends is a free third-party tool. We store nothing and pass no data on — the link opens directly on trends.google.com in a new tab.
Each dot is a trade sector. Left = lower density per 10,000 residents, top = more movement (registrations and deregistrations over the last 11 months).
Density per 10,000 inhabitants plus market dynamics over the last 11 months. Sorted by density, descending.
| Federal state | Locations | per 10k | Density | Market dynamics | net 11 mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burgenland → | 334 | 11.1 | Very high | Active market | -0.3 % |
| Salzburg → | 613 | 10.7 | Very high | Active market | -1.8 % |
| Tirol → | 793 | 10.2 | High | Shrinking, volatile | -2.1 % |
| Kärnten → | 560 | 9.8 | High | Growing, volatile | +2.2 % |
| Niederösterreich → | 1,679 | 9.7 | Medium | Active market | -1.6 % |
| Vorarlberg → | 352 | 8.5 | Medium | Active market | +0.6 % |
| Steiermark → | 1,035 | 8.1 | Low | Active market | +0.1 % |
| Wien(here) | 1,393 | 6.8 | Low | Shrinking, volatile | -4.0 % |
| Oberösterreich → | 995 | 6.5 | Low | Active market | +0.9 % |
Sorted by Baumeister density per 10,000 inhabitants, descending. “Licensed” = GISA trade licences, “OSM” = shop addresses visible in OpenStreetMap, “since May 25” = district net delta post method break (clean signal, without the May-2025 jump).
| Postcode | District | Lic. | OSM | Inh. | per 10k | Density | since May 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1010 | Innere Stadt | 87 | 0 | 16,281 | 53.4 | Very high | falling -6.5 % |
| 1060 | Mariahilf | 42 | 0 | 31,083 | 13.5 | Very high | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1040 | Wieden | 38 | 0 | 33,444 | 11.4 | Very high | falling -9.5 % |
| 1230 | Liesing | 137 | 0 | 123,714 | 11.1 | Very high | falling -2.8 % |
| 1070 | Neubau | 34 | 0 | 31,330 | 10.8 | Very high | rising +3.0 % |
| 1030 | Landstraße | 92 | 0 | 98,881 | 9.3 | High | falling -1.1 % |
| 1190 | Döbling | 65 | 0 | 76,074 | 8.5 | High | falling -3.0 % |
| 1080 | Josefstadt | 20 | 0 | 24,242 | 8.3 | High | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1050 | Margareten | 44 | 0 | 54,581 | 8.1 | High | falling -12.0 % |
| 1090 | Alsergrund | 33 | 0 | 41,664 | 7.9 | High | rising +3.1 % |
| 1150 | Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus | 55 | 0 | 75,902 | 7.3 | High | falling -9.8 % |
| 1180 | Währing | 35 | 0 | 51,376 | 6.8 | Medium | falling -5.4 % |
| 1020 | Leopoldstadt | 76 | 0 | 112,675 | 6.8 | Medium | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1120 | Meidling | 62 | 0 | 102,393 | 6.1 | Medium | falling -8.8 % |
| 1170 | Hernals | 34 | 0 | 56,767 | 6.0 | Medium | falling -8.1 % |
| 1110 | Simmering | 67 | 0 | 112,149 | 6.0 | Medium | falling -2.9 % |
| 1130 | Hietzing | 33 | 0 | 56,108 | 5.9 | Medium | falling -10.8 % |
| 1140 | Penzing | 56 | 0 | 99,049 | 5.7 | Low | falling -5.1 % |
| 1100 | Favoriten | 119 | 0 | 223,190 | 5.3 | Low | falling -4.0 % |
| 1220 | Donaustadt | 118 | 0 | 228,158 | 5.2 | Low | rising +2.6 % |
| 1160 | Ottakring | 44 | 0 | 102,727 | 4.3 | Low | falling -17.0 % |
| 1210 | Floridsdorf | 81 | 0 | 189,551 | 4.3 | Low | rising +2.5 % |
| 1200 | Brigittenau | 21 | 0 | 86,950 | 2.4 | Low | falling -8.7 % |
Lic. vs. OSM: GISA also counts mobile or home-based businesses without a shop; OSM shows only those with a visible address. Vienna total: 1,393 licensed vs. ~0 in OSM (0 with postcode, 0 without).
Quick answers to the typical questions about Baumeister in Austria.
Optional · if you need more
Everything you see here stays freely accessible — always current, always verifiable. But if you need these figures for your business plan, the bank or your own bookkeeping, there is the Pro Report: a complete PDF report to save, an Excel export of the raw data, 12 months of automatic updates.