Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft

BIG was created by law in 1992, with the objective of centralizing property management for Austria's public sector. The federal real-estate property had previously been managed by the Federal Buildings Directorate Vienna (Bundesbaudirektion Wien) in the Vienna province, and in the other provinces by the Federal Buildings Administrations (Bundesgebäudeverwaltungen). The aim was to improve the cost-efficiency of various government departments. The underlying premise for this system of internal rent was that requiring departments to pay for and account for their usage of buildings would force them to rationalise their use of space and allow surplus space to be put to alternative use or sold.

Economy and market

Unlike other companies close to the Austrian government, BIG acts on the free real estate market, but its business activities are restricted to the Republic of Austria. The Austrian government is dependent on BIG, since it has a de facto monopoly on special-purpose buildings such as educational facilities and prisons. The Austrian government entities—such as ministries and universities—that rent these buildings, account for 98% of BIG:s rental income, Therefore, BIG and the Austrian public sector may be inferred to be in a bilateral monopoly situation with regard to special-purpose buildings. Rents are fixed on a market-like basis, though with adjustments for special-purpose buildings.

Real estate portfolio

In 2008, the book value of the real estate owned by BIG was approximately 4.15 billion EUR. The real estate portfolio consisted of:

Schools and universities (70.5%)

Prisons, police stations and court houses (27%)