Vienna became a federal province in 1922 with its own taxing powers, and Breitner introduced a steeply progressive Wohnbausteuer together with luxury levies, funding construction from current revenue instead of debt. In September 1923 the council resolved to build 25,000 flats in five years. Wartime rent control inherited from 1917 had destroyed rental and land values, so the city could buy land cheaply and on a large scale, letting it build low-coverage courtyard blocks rather than bid for expensive sites.
Around 64,000 municipal flats were completed by 1934, housing roughly a tenth of Vienna's population at rents of a few per cent of a worker's wage — the first demonstration anywhere that a city government could become a mass landlord and hold the result. The Gemeindebau model still frames European debate on municipal housing, and Vienna's stock of about 220,000 city-owned flats remains the standing argument for it.
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