CMS Real Estate Data Centre Consenting in Austria

In Austria there are no specific requirements to enter into any agreement with the local authority/municipality when applying for decisions regarding a data centre investment (please note, that in Austria jurisdiction there is no one universal data centre consent, but the investment is subject to a standard development process, requiring obtainment of construction decisions, the same as for other class of assets).

In certain cases, local authorities may require the conclusion of a so called Städtebaulicher Vertrag which is an agreement between applicant and local authority obliging the applicant for a building permit to construct some local infrastructure related to the planned data centre. However, this is not specific for data centres but also for other development projects.

Datacentres are quite a new class of development in Austria and are not specifically regulated in specific Austrian regulations.

As to zoning datacentres can be found in industrial areas but also in office areas.

No. The applicant has to have a legal title to the land allowing to develop the property. It may be based on the ownership but also on other type of title to the land, such as a tenancy/lease of the plots.

The main steps to secure data centre consent are:

1. Obtainment of the building permit. The statutory deadline for local authorities can vary between each federal state.  In practice it depends on the workload of the local authority, the quality of the submission documents and whether objections are raised. The process to obtain the building permit can last a few months up to more than one year.
2. Obtainment of the operating permit (Betriebsanlagengenehmigung) after completion of the investment, but before building it. The statutory deadline for local authorities to issue the decision depends on the type of procedure that has to be carried out (e.g., simplified procedure, usual procedure, etc). In case of a simplified procedure, it is two months, in case of usual procedures four months (in practice it may take longer, even up to more than one year, depending on practice of particular local authority (see above re. building permit) and scope of particular investment).
3. Potential further permits, e.g., based on the Water Rights Act, Nature Protection Acts, etc.

No. However, a development of the property (Aufschließung), e.g., building an access to sewer etc., may be necessary afterwards. Furthermore, it is advisable to clarify necessary utilities beforehand, because depending e.g. on the power requirement, a separate transformer etc. may have to be approved.

As mentioned above, data centres are a new class of assets and are not explicitly mentioned and regulated by Austrian Law. Therefore, currently there are no clear land plans or zones in place which automatically authorise data centres.

In such event, development of data centre requires steps described in general in point 4 above, like any other development project.

That depends on the location of the specific project (e.g., applicability of Nature Protection Acts). It is common practice to consider adverse impacts on water bodies. At the same time, new buildings are now partially also subject to greening and sustainability regulations (e.g., partial obligation to install photovoltaic or solar thermal systems).

There are no biodiversity requirements specifically for data centres developments. Nevertheless, general planning conditions may include some biodiversity requirements, if located in regions where biodiversity is relevant.